Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Evaluations typically cost between £50,000 and £250,000.
Conclusion
Evaluations typically cost between £50,000 and £250,000. The NAO estimated that HMRC had spent around £2 million on evaluating tax reliefs since 2015. HMRC has an annual central research budget of £2 million per year to fund evaluations of tax reliefs and other research to inform its wider business and HM Treasury priorities.14 We asked HMRC why it spent so little on evaluations compared to the value of taxes. It explained that its £2 million budget was for external research only and that it also undertook internal evaluations and analysis. However, it had no central record of the research it had conducted internally.15 HMRC was also unable to tell us how much it had spent on internal research, and in written evidence submitted after the hearing stated that it did not record activity spent on reviewing reliefs internally.16 HMRC accepted that it was important for it to focus on bringing together its internal analysis and publishing whatever information it could.17
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
5.2 The government recognises the importance of transparency in providing information to inform the understanding of tax reliefs. HMRC includes links to external evaluations and research reports about tax reliefs in the annual statistics publications. HMRC will continue to publish externally commissioned evaluations and to include relevant internal evaluation findings in consultation documents. 5.3 HMRC's internal analysis takes a wide range of forms from comprehensive impact assessments to analysis to feed into policy advice to Ministers on specific options, proposals and decisions, which is necessarily confidential. In 2021 HMRC will put in place a more structured programme of internal evaluation work including plans to start publishing this analysis from 2021, subject to Ministerial approval. It will however remain the case that unpublished information included in policy advice for Ministers will be subject to the normal confidentiality arrangements for such advice.