Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential for AI and digital technology to reduce a) tax evasion and b) tax avoidance.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC is expanding its use of AI to help tackle the tax gap and The Hon gentleman’s Telford constituency is an important hub for HMRC’s digital and AI work. HMRC’s expansion includes how they focus their compliance work through new risk-targeting capabilities to identify cases for investigation, improving case selection. It also means using AI to identify nascent issues with the tax system, so they can act rapidly to prevent them before they grow.
This year, HMRC has also significantly invested in partnering with the private sector to explore the use of novel analytical techniques and data to identify deliberate evasion.
HMRC is harnessing artificial intelligence to deliver a more efficient and professional service for customers. They will use new technology as a tool to help them to do their jobs more effectively. Greater use of AI will mean that staff spend less time on admin and more time helping taxpayers. It will also help HMRC better target their action against fraud and evasion, to bring in more money for public services.
Artificial intelligence supports some of their processes but never replaces human decision-making and oversight. HMRC remains committed to the safe use of these technologies, underpinned by strict data protection, security and ethical standards. In cases where AI is used in a way that could impact customer outcomes, HMRC ensures that results are explainable and that there is always human oversight. This means that even when AI is used to support decision-making, final decisions are always made by experienced, trained case workers.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the efficacy of the Government's efforts to reduce tax evasion.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC is committed to closing the tax gap further and tackling non-compliant behaviours such as tax evasion, tax avoidance, criminal attacks, error, failure to take reasonable care, hidden economy activity, legal interpretation issues, and non-payment.
In 2024 to 2025, HMRC’s compliance work contributed to record tax revenues of £875.9 billion, collecting and protecting £48 billion of tax that would have gone unpaid if HMRC hadn’t stepped in – up from £41.8 billion the previous year.
At the Autumn Budget 2025, the government announced a package of measures that will raise a further £2.4 billion in additional tax revenues in 2029 to 2030. This builds on announcements at Autumn Budget 2024 (£6.5 billion), and Spring Statement 2025 (over £1 billion) and brings the total revenue from closing the tax gap announced this Parliament to £10 billion in 2029 to 2030.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to use technological innovation to simplify the process of filing tax returns.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is investing in HMRC’s digital services to simplify tax filing, improve accuracy and reduce burdens on taxpayers.
Improvements to digital journeys will make it easier for taxpayers to register, deregister or manage their obligations online, reducing the need for phone contact.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will give sole traders and landlords an up-to-date view of their tax position during the year and reduce errors at the year end.
HMRC is also expanding the use of third-party data and pre-population across Income Tax Self Assessment, allowing returns to be completed more quickly without re-entering information HMRC already holds.
Where tax affairs are straightforward, HMRC also uses third-party data to issue Simple Assessments, removing the need for an Income Tax Self Assessment return altogether.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish a breakdown of a) the number of claims and b) the total value of statutory paternity pay and shared parental pay between the public and private sectors for each of the last three years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC collects data on statutory paternity and shared parental pay. HMRC also holds data on the legal status of organisations and their Pay As You Earn schemes, which does include whether the organisation is a private sector or public sector organisation.
However, to match the two together would be a significant analytical task and so the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what data her Department holds on the (a) number of claims and (b) value of payments made for statutory paternity leave and shared parental leave each year by economic sector and industry.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not collect data on statutory paternity leave or shared parental leave. HMRC does collect data on statutory paternity pay and shared parental pay which may closely approximate leave in both cases.
HMRC also holds data on economic sector, but to match the two together would be a significant analytical task and so the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people claimed (a) Statutory Maternity Leave, (b) Statutory Paternity Leave and (c) Statutory Parental Leave by income decile in the 2024/25 financial year.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Numbers of individuals in receipt of statutory payments, including breakdowns by income decile, are published here:
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many child trust funds are unclaimed in (a) Telford constituency, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Information on Child Trust Funds is available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2024
HMRC does not hold information on the geographical locations of Child Trust Fund account holders, therefore the requested regional breakdowns cannot be provided.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will provide a breakdown of statutory maternity leave claims by income decile of the recipient for each of the last three years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The table below shows the number of claimants of Statutory Maternity Pay, by recipient’s income decile, where income deciles have been calculated across the whole Real Time Information (RTI) population for each given tax year.
Income Decile | ||||||||||
Date | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
Total 2022-23 | 2,000 | 5,000 | 36,000 | 68,000 | 89,000 | 93,000 | 91,000 | 92,000 | 85,000 | 66,000 |
Total 2023-24 | 2,000 | 5,000 | 36,000 | 62,000 | 88,000 | 92,000 | 91,000 | 94,000 | 84,000 | 68,000 |
Total 2024-25 | 2,000 | 6,000 | 38,000 | 63,000 | 87,000 | 92,000 | 91,000 | 94,000 | 86,000 | 71,000 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in August 2025. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Claim numbers have been rounded to nearest 1000.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses (a) claim Small Employers Relief and (b) have more than 100 employees in each (i) region and (ii) nation.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Data for the financial year 2024/25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2020/21 until 2023/24 is provided below.
The table below shows the number of PAYE schemes who claimed compensation for any of the four Statutory Parental Payments, qualifying them for Small Employers’ Relief.
Date | Statutory Maternity Pay Scheme Count | Statutory Paternity Pay Scheme Count | Shared Parental Pay Scheme Count | Statutory Adoption Pay Scheme Count | Total |
20/21 | 62,800 | 10,200 | 500 | 300 | 73,800 |
21/22 | 63,000 | 14,600 | 600 | 300 | 78,500 |
22/23 | 61,000 | 15,700 | 600 | 400 | 77,700 |
23/24 | 58,600 | 15,000 | 600 | 400 | 74,600 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes who claimed Small Employers’ Relief, with schemes used as a proxy for business count.
The table below shows how much compensation was paid to PAYE schemes claiming Small Employers’ Relief but not the entire value of parental payment claims.
Date | Statutory | Statutory | Shared | Statutory | Total (£000’s) |
20/21 | 10,500 | 200 | 100 | 100 | 10,900 |
21/22 | 12,400 | 300 | 200 | 100 | 13,000 |
22/23 | 13,400 | 1,400 | 200 | 400 | 15,400 |
23/24 | 17,400 | 400 | 200 | 200 | 18,200 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Claims values have been rounded to nearest £100,000.
The table below shows the proportion of claims for Small Employers’ Relief compensation against total parental pay reclaims.
Date | Total Compensation Count | Total Recovery Count | Proportion |
19/20 | 77,000 | 202,000 | 38% |
20/21 | 74,000 | 185,000 | 40% |
21/22 | 79,000 | 196,000 | 40% |
22/23 | 78,000 | 196,000 | 40% |
23/24 | 75,000 | 196,000 | 38% |
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Total number of claims rounded to nearest 1000.
3) The proportion calculation assumes all schemes claiming compensation are also counted within number of claims for recoveries.
Further breakdowns of information by income decile or of employees by region are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.
Some related information may be found in this call for evidence: Parental leave and pay review: call for evidence - GOV.UK, including the number of claimants by income decile and region up to 2023/24.
Asked by: Shaun Davies (Labour - Telford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much and what proportion of parental leave payments were paid to employers claiming Small Employers Relief in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Data for the financial year 2024/25 has not yet been fully analysed as the financial year has only recently ended. Data for financial years 2020/21 until 2023/24 is provided below.
The table below shows the number of PAYE schemes who claimed compensation for any of the four Statutory Parental Payments, qualifying them for Small Employers’ Relief.
Date | Statutory Maternity Pay Scheme Count | Statutory Paternity Pay Scheme Count | Shared Parental Pay Scheme Count | Statutory Adoption Pay Scheme Count | Total |
20/21 | 62,800 | 10,200 | 500 | 300 | 73,800 |
21/22 | 63,000 | 14,600 | 600 | 300 | 78,500 |
22/23 | 61,000 | 15,700 | 600 | 400 | 77,700 |
23/24 | 58,600 | 15,000 | 600 | 400 | 74,600 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) PAYE scheme counts have been rounded to nearest 100.
3) The table shows the count of PAYE schemes who claimed Small Employers’ Relief, with schemes used as a proxy for business count.
The table below shows how much compensation was paid to PAYE schemes claiming Small Employers’ Relief but not the entire value of parental payment claims.
Date | Statutory | Statutory | Shared | Statutory | Total (£000’s) |
20/21 | 10,500 | 200 | 100 | 100 | 10,900 |
21/22 | 12,400 | 300 | 200 | 100 | 13,000 |
22/23 | 13,400 | 1,400 | 200 | 400 | 15,400 |
23/24 | 17,400 | 400 | 200 | 200 | 18,200 |
Notes:
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Claims values have been rounded to nearest £100,000.
The table below shows the proportion of claims for Small Employers’ Relief compensation against total parental pay reclaims.
Date | Total Compensation Count | Total Recovery Count | Proportion |
19/20 | 77,000 | 202,000 | 38% |
20/21 | 74,000 | 185,000 | 40% |
21/22 | 79,000 | 196,000 | 40% |
22/23 | 78,000 | 196,000 | 40% |
23/24 | 75,000 | 196,000 | 38% |
1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.
2) Total number of claims rounded to nearest 1000.
3) The proportion calculation assumes all schemes claiming compensation are also counted within number of claims for recoveries.
Further breakdowns of information by income decile or of employees by region are not currently available from published statistics, and collating and verifying the relevant data solely for the purpose of answering this question would incur disproportionate cost.
Some related information may be found in this call for evidence: Parental leave and pay review: call for evidence - GOV.UK, including the number of claimants by income decile and region up to 2023/24.