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Revenue and Customs: Standards

Asked by Sarah GreenLiberal DemocratTreasuryTabled Answered 22 October 2025UIN 82417

The question

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the mechanisms available to Parliament to hold HMRC to account for the effectiveness of its safeguarding of public money.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson

HMRC is subject to the same parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms for its stewardship of public resources as other government departments, as set out in HM Treasury's Managing Public Money guidance, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/managing-public-money.

This means the department’s annual report and accounts must be produced in line with the requirements set out by HM Treasury, audited by the Comptroller & Auditor General and laid in Parliament. In addition, HMRC's Accounting Officer is directly accountable to Parliament and regularly appears before the Committee of Public Accounts. HMRC is also subject to departmental scrutiny by the Treasury Committee.

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