Speeches by Paul.

“ It is reassuring to hear about the arrests. When do you anticipate starting to use those civil powers more routinely?”

“ I can see that one of the strategies you have been using is to identify groups of businesses and send a letter out to them if you think their revenue is looking too low. How effective has that been, in your view, in terms of recouping tax losses?”

“ It is now spring 2025; thank you. Moving on, HMRC has reduced its use of prosecutions. The number of prosecutions resulting from HMRC’s criminal investigations has reduced from 749 in 2018-19 to 344 in 2023-24. I am interested, Ms Ciniewicz, in your perspective on the impact on deterrent …”

“ You planned to update the estimate of the tax loss from ESS this month. Do you now have those new estimates? When can we expect to see those?”

“The Government have announced that housing targets for Reigate and Banstead will increase significantly. We will move from an advisory target of 644 houses per year to a mandatory and completely unrealistic target of 1,264—a 96% increase. A large proportion of my constituency is green belt. If all areas must play their…”

“5. What steps he is taking to support the hospitality sector.”

“In Reigate, Redhill, Banstead and our villages, we have many amazing pubs that contribute hugely to the economy, such as the Garibaldi community pub in Redhill. For those businesses to thrive, reform of the unfair business rates system by 2026 is critical. Will the Minister commit to the proposed 20p reduction to the s…”

“I welcome the statement and commend the Secretary of State for putting the safety and wellbeing of children first. The use of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria is—I will not mince my words—nothing short of a medical scandal, in my view, so I very much welcome his approach. He said that it is important that you…”

“Q14. In recent weeks Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, has warned that conflict between Russia and the west is no longer coming; it has already come. With Russia poised to spend more than 6% of its GDP on its military next year, the time for reviews and road maps is over. Will the Prime Minister recognise t…”

“Thank you. I think we would all really welcome the work that you are doing on that, because we obviously appreciate the importance of that data. I am keen to validate my understanding of something and see whether you think it rings true, and what you think needs to happen if it is true. When I have spoken to various co…”

“I have one last question—or would you like me to move on, Chair?”

“We are seeing this issue with looked-after children who are out of area—exactly the same situation. It makes me wonder whether we should look at some kind of centralised co-ordination. I know that we have very much moved to this devolved model, but this can be the downside of that: when we do not have the central co-or…”

“I would like to declare that I am a county councillor at Surrey county council. I will move on to out-of-area placements. We know that some local authorities struggle to place households within their local area, and, according to the NAO Report, the number of households placed out of area rose from 23,450 in quarter 3 …”

“ Thank you. You mentioned the £6.5 billion reduction that you are trying to secure. How confident are you about delivering that? Also, given that the tax gap is an important measure and there is some subjectivity around some of the assumptions that will go into how you calculate that—for example, differences …”

“ I want to pull together all the different things we have been talking about today. We started talking about the tax gap and the importance of bringing that down. Clearly, addressing that gap and bringing it down is intrinsically linked to the customer service element, because the taxpayer needs help at the right …”

“ I would suggest that more notice is always better. For example, if I knew next week I was going to register for VAT, and for whatever reason I did not feel I was able to use the digital option, having more than two or three days’ notice would allow me to make the call at the right time to get that help. I would s…”

“ That is incredibly reassuring. Thank you for that. While I am talking about VAT, may I ask this? Obviously, right now you will have real-life pressures with respect to this. I expect you are getting an increase in VAT registration requests in the light of the change in rules that is coming—from various schools an…”

“ That is very helpful. Thank you so much.”

“ First, I declare that I am a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, and I am also a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. Total revenues increased by £29.4 billion compared with 2022-23, which was largely driven by growth in revenue from income tax, reflecting the continu…”

“ You mentioned pensioners; they are a really good example. To bring this issue to life, can you talk us through what it means in practical terms when a pensioner is brought into paying tax, in terms of the additional work that HMRC has to do?”