Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 105764 on Child Benefit: Maladministration, and with reference to the Data Protection Impact Assessment 15489, if she will make an assessment of why issues were not identified earlier, in the context of page 10 of the DPIA stating that weekly meetings would take place to identify issues.

Of the 23,794 Child Benefit enquires opened between August and October 2025 to confirm claimant’s residency status, 346 (1.5%) were issued to Northern Ireland claimants.

HMRC does not hold a breakdown of the categories of error and fraud for those customers that were found to be non-compliant.

As HMRC has explained, when issues were identified it took swift action to resolve the position for affected customers and HMRC has also strengthened the process and safeguards going forward for this exercise.