This Memorandum responds to the Sub-Committee's requests at the hearing on 5 December.

The Committee asked if we have a figure for what the cost of calls to the Child Benefit helpline would have been to users [Q 367]

  We have looked into the cost in more depth and find that we still can not provide the Committee with a figure.

  The cost of calls to "non geographic" numbers such as 0845, 0870 and 0800 is dependent on several factors. Calls are charged to the customer based on the tariff arrangements they themselves have with their own telephone service provider, the device they use for the call and the location from which they call. This is customer information which HMRC does not hold and it is therefore not possible for us to estimate the cost of calls.

  Our current policy is to operate customer facing helplines using 0845 prefix as the department believes this strikes the right cost balance between the customer and the public purse. HMRC does not make any money from using 0845 numbers. Using a non geographic prefix—such as 0845—allows us to:

—  exploit, cost effectively, modern contact centre technology to best advantage;

—  direct calls to the next available adviser anywhere in the country; and

—  have shorter queues, shorter waiting times and fewer customers get engaged tones and busy messages.

The Committee asked which version of WinZip was used for compression and what was the form of the password [Q 391]

  As Mr Hartnett explained in his evidence to the Committee, the data was password protected using WinZip version 8. The level of encryption is not considered sufficient to protect the data. We have now upgraded to 256 bit encryption with at least a 20 character password. Publication of any further detail about the specific password used will be considered as part of the Poynter Review, taking into account the need to prevent any further risk that data might be misused.

The Committee asked when the police were advised of the data loss [Q 394]

  As the Chancellor of the Exchequer explained in his statement to the House on 20 November 2007 (Official Report, Column 1101), on Wednesday 14 November he instructed the then Chairman of HMRC to call in the Metropolitan Police to conduct a full investigation. The Chairman formally notified the Police on Thursday 15 November.

The Committee asked for details of staff bonus payments for 2005-06 and 2006-07 [Qq 401-11]

  2006-07 was the first year that bonus payments were made under the new integrated HMRC performance pay arrangements. These arrangements are aimed at rewarding individual performance, through bonus payments, thereby driving up performance within the department. HMRC's bonus pot for staff below SCS is currently 0.8%.

The Committee asked whether any guidance has been given to the intelligence teams to concentrate on the Channel ports [Q 422-3]

  Our intelligence officers have not been given guidance to concentrate only on ports and airports approved for international arrivals and departures. We have officers who specialise in securing intelligence in respect of unapproved ports and airports. The intelligence is used for law enforcement activities within HMRC and by the police.

The Committee asked for details of employment, including part-time and casual employment, for security at buildings [Q 426]

  Of the 227 security guards employed by HMRC, including day security, we have only 9 fixed term appointment (FTA)/agency staff (just under 4%) engaged in security activities. Additionally FTA staff are not allowed to take up guarding activities until they have been cleared by the Counter Terrorist Check vetting procedure. There are no part-time security staff.

The Committee asked whether the contract given to Mapeley for security staff was subject to competitive tender [Q 489]

  The Estates PFI contract, which includes the provision of security guarding services, was subject to full competitive tender. At the time that this contract was let, the former Departments took the decision to retain any existing in-house security guarding. The buildings covered by in-house arrangements are relatively few in number because the majority of the Department's buildings are secured by external security providers. There are a total of 120 buildings on the estate which have guards providing security and of these, 22 sites have in-house security guards.

The Committee asked for statistics on VAT registration targets, performance and complaints [Q 493]

2007	August	September	October	November
Applications received	21,891	19,947	21,219	23,181
% processed in 14 days[9]	14.4%	19.75%	45.45%	57.57%
Average time to process (days) [10]	42	39	28	18
Number of cases unstarted	30,905	25,619	5,862	1,756
Number of complaints received	155	115	100	71

January 2008

10   Average time to process a case processed this month. Back