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HM Revenue and Customs

My Lords, I have two questions for the Minister. The Statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer says that the HMRC, "““is operationally independent of Ministers. It is established by statute. It is run by its chairman … and a board of commissioners who are responsible for its operations, but answerable to Parliament through me””." Where does the buck stop? The chairman has now gone and the board of commissioners, according to what the noble Lord, Lord Christopher, says, does not have the experience. It could be in free fall even more now. What responsibility does the Chancellor of the Exchequer take personally? Secondly, did anyone anticipate that there would be a real problem of morale following the merging of two major organisations and that staff who might be threatened with the cuts could do this out of sheer misery? There are ways that commercial organisations have had to cope by appointing someone tasked specially to bring large organisations together. Did HMRC have someone like that?