Recommendation 15

HM Treasury told us it has ongoing dialogue with departments and supports the funding of counter fraud activity if it is cost effective. We asked HM Treasury why it took 12 months to approve the £100 million funding for a Taxpayer Protection Taskforce within HMRC. HM Treasury told us it wanted to see the assessment of the potential benefits that should accrue, and to be assured that the money is going to be directed in the right place, though was keen to assure us that throughout the 12 months there was “active discussion” around the funding required. HMRC told us it did not wait until March 2021 to deploy counter fraud and error resources on CJRS and SEISS, but the additional investment enabled it to open a further 20,000 one-to-one investigations on top of the 10,000 that it had already opened, as well as more criminal investigations.38