Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to shorten the response time for calls to the COVID-19 helpline for businesses and the self-employed.

HMRC continue to prioritise COVID-19 schemes. Following Government guidelines, HMRC have reduced their telephony service times to ensure staff safety and to provide greater flexibility with available resource. HMRC have increased the level of availability on their webchat service and provided staff working from home with the technology to answer calls from home. HMRC continue to monitor all call volumes to ensure they have the available resource with the appropriate expertise to meet demand.