Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time for members of the public calling His Majesty's Revenue and Customs by phone.

HMRC publishes its call waiting times on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates

Improving day-to-day performance is a key priority for HMRC.

In 2024-25, HMRC handled 71.5% of adviser attempts across their helplines and had an average call answer time of 18 minutes 38 seconds. This year (April – September 2025), HMRC have handled 83.8% of adviser attempts and average call wait times have decreased to 13 minutes 30 seconds.

HMRC are taking steps to make sure more of their services are digital. HMRC online services and the HMRC app are convenient to access and receive high customer satisfaction ratings. As more people use HMRC online services, advisers are freed up to support those with more complex queries and those who are digitally excluded.