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HM Revenue and Customs

Answer

In 2004 the Inland Revenue closed four tax offices. Two of the offices were in London, one was in IR Central (Hertfordshire) and one in IR South (Dorset).Customs and Excise and the Inland Revenue merged in April 2005 to form HM Revenue and Customs. HMRC has a policy of consolidating offices where possible, both to ensure they offer a joined-up service to customers and also to contribute to their efficiency targets. HMRC have sought to take advantage of opportunities such as the expiry of leases and relocation into existing Government estate and have consolidated ex-IR staff as detailed in the following table.In all but one of the closures we have maintained a presence in the town. In the one instance where this did not happen the move was involuntary (the landlord would not renew the lease).Inland Revenue Enquiry Centres (IRECs) were closed in four locations, with customers redirected to other IRECs within a maximum of two miles from the office being closed.The breakdown by year, region and county:

	2004	2005	Total
Region
East of England	1	1	2
London	2	9	11
Scotland	0	1	1
North West	0	1	1
Yorkshire and the Humber	0	1	1
West Midlands	0	1	1
South East	0	1	1
North East	0	2	2
South West	1	2	3
Total	4	19	23
County
Dorset	1	0	1
Essex	0	1	1
Gloucestershire	0	1	1
Greater London	2	9	11
Hertfordshire	1	0	1
Lothian	0	1	1
Merseyside	0	1	1
North Yorkshire	0	1	1
Shropshire	0	1	1
Surrey	0	1	1
Tyne and Wear	0	2	2
Wiltshire	0	1	1
Total	4	19	23

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

19265; 437 c1194-5W;437 c1176-7W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Inland Revenue