Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of successful prosecutions for tax evasion; and if he will make a statement.

In the 2015 Summer Budget, the Government announced investment of £800 million to tackle non‑compliance, including £266 million and 670 new staff to tackle tax fraud.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) are doing more to tackle organised criminals evading tax and duties and are tripling the number of criminal investigations into the most serious and complex tax crimes.

To tackle enablers of offshore tax evasion, new civil sanctions have been introduced to include public naming and penalties of up to 100% of the tax evaded.

In addition new criminal offences to address corporate complicity in facilitating tax evasion were legislated for in the Criminal Finances Act 2017. These offences take effect from 30 September 2017.

This all builds on our earlier investment in HMRC which enabled it to achieve a seven-fold increase in the number of prosecutions over the Spending Review 2010 period.

Last year this work protected over £2.3bn of vital public revenue.