Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 19
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and Accounts
Published 22 Jan 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee HMRC Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
HMRC estimates that the tax gap–the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid to HMRC, and what was actually paid–increased from £38.1 billion in 2021–22 to £39.8 billion in 2022–23 (the latest year for which HMRC has made an estimate). As a proportion of tax due, it decreased from 5.2% to 4.8%.56 HMRC has been given additional resources to bring in more tax revenue and reduce the tax gap further. In the Autumn Budget 2024 it was given funding for 5,000 additional compliance officers and it expects the measures set out will bring in approximately £6.5 billion additional tax revenues by 2029–30.57 It said additional staff will focus on tackling non- compliance among small businesses, who made up 60% of the tax gap in 2022–23, up from 37% in 2017–18.58 HMRC said these staff will initially be used to respond and investigate where taxpayers make mistakes or avoid or evade tax, although HMRC said tackling non-compliance among small businesses in this way is challenging given the large number of cases.59
From: Public Accounts Committee, 3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and Accounts (HC 347), 22 January 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Third Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Third report from Session 2024-25
Published 6 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations, with target implementation dates ranging from March 2026 to March 2028 for several, but disagrees with reinstating a call waiting time target and with the proposed resourcing "guard rails" and corrective trigger.
- On a call waiting time target, the government "disagrees". It says ASA "remains a key performance metric" and that its Adviser Attempts Handled measure and customer satisfaction metrics give "a more rounded view" of the experience for all callers.
- The government agrees that call waiting estimates, no cut-offs without warning and a callback service should be required in a new telephone service, with a target implementation date of March 2027. It says the new Contact Service platform procurement will launch in spring 2025.
- The government disagrees with setting a trigger when service levels fall more than five percentage points below target. It says HMRC is "always reviewing plans and forecasts of demand" and adjusting resourcing "day-by-day and week-by-week".
- On tax debt, the government agrees, and HMRC "will respond to the Committee in September 2025" with its expectations for the debt balance by 2029-30 and plans for older debts, allowing for the outcome of Spending Review Phase 2.