Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many contracts to private companies HM Revenue and Customs has awarded in the last five years; and to which companies those contracts were awarded.

Records of contracts awarded in the last 5 years are not held in such a way as to be able to identify those awarded specifically to private companies. Given the number of individual contract awards made over a 5-year period, the requested information is not available except at disproportionate cost.

In line with the government transparency agenda, HM Revenue and Customs publishes contract opportunities over £10,000 and contract award information in the government on-line portal ‘Contracts Finder’ (available at https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder) as well as in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) via Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) (available at http://ted.europa.eu/TED/main/HomePage.do).