Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that HMRC process refunds promptly for people owed payments following their self-assessment tax returns.

HMRC has a service level agreement to issue the majority of Self-assessment (SA) repayments in 15 working days. HMRC are currently achieving this level of service, and are issuing approximately 80 per cent within 10 days, although some repayments do take longer due to additional security and compliance checks.

There is an automated process for issuing repayments resulting from the submission of online SA Returns so these will be issued when the returns are submitted, subject to any additional checks.