HM Revenue and Customs has undertaken limited decommissioning work on the Tax Credit systems. All decommissioning costs are paid through Cap Gemini as our prime supplier and the value of those payments is £1.2m.

The Tax Credits systems will continue to be supported by HM Revenue and Customs until such time as all Tax Credits customers have migrated to Universal Credits. We also expect some retrospective work on Tax Credits to continue after the migration has completed for error/fraud/debt reasons. Costs related to providing this continuing support will be included in the contract replacement work.

Any HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) costs that are a direct and clear consequence of supporting the introduction of Universal Credit are funded and met by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Universal Credit Programme and are included in the DWP Universal Credit Business Case.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) trained and deployed a flexible resource of just over 2000 staff from across the Department and deployed them in stages from 23rd June until the end of the Tax credit peak to ensure that the peak was a better experience for customers this year than it has been in earlier years. The Tax Credit peak this year was a huge team effort with staff of all grades including senior members of staff volunteering to help support our customers by taking telephone calls.

We do not have a record of how many of these additional staff were apprentices.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) trained and deployed a flexible resource of just over 2000 staff from across the Department and deployed them in stages from 23rd June until the end of the Tax credit peak to ensure that the peak was a better experience for customers this year than it has been in earlier years. The Tax Credit peak this year was a huge team effort with staff of all grades including senior members of staff volunteering to help support our customers by taking telephone calls.

We do not have a record of how many of these additional staff were apprentices.

Over the 7 year period from 07/08 to 13/14 there is an annual c£3m productivity improvement a year on average.

HM Revenue and Customs is in the process of preparing a Business Case to manage the end of the Aspire contract in June 2017.

HMRC has one of the largest outsourced IT contracts in the world, enabling us to deliver a very wide range of services to more than 50 million customers.

We are committed to delivering all this for the minimum cost to the taxpayer. As the NAO report recognises, the Aspire contract helped the department to collect almost £506 billion for the UK in the last year alone as well as improving services to customers.

The NAO also recognises the progress that HMRC has made over the last two years in developing in-house technical skills, so that we are less dependent on external suppliers. For instance, we recently opened a new Digital Delivery Centre in Newcastle as part of our Digital transformation programme.

We will continue to improve the performance of the contract over the next three years.

Over the 7 year period from 07/08 to 13/14 there is an annual c£3m productivity improvement a year on average.

HM Revenue and Customs is in the process of preparing a Business Case to manage the end of the Aspire contract in June 2017.

HMRC has one of the largest outsourced IT contracts in the world, enabling us to deliver a very wide range of services to more than 50 million customers.

We are committed to delivering all this for the minimum cost to the taxpayer. As the NAO report recognises, the Aspire contract helped the department to collect almost £506 billion for the UK in the last year alone as well as improving services to customers.

The NAO also recognises the progress that HMRC has made over the last two years in developing in-house technical skills, so that we are less dependent on external suppliers. For instance, we recently opened a new Digital Delivery Centre in Newcastle as part of our Digital transformation programme.

We will continue to improve the performance of the contract over the next three years.

Fujitsu provide data centre hosting for many of HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) IT systems at multiple UK locations but they do so on HMRC's behalf and do not hold any data outside of the Department's direct control. HMRC ensure all of our systems are appropriately controlled so that IT providers do not have routine access to taxpayer information.

For security reasons we are unable to share the specific location of Fujitsu/HMRC data centres.

The UKBA was closed in March 2013.

HM Revenue and Customs staff numbers for Consultancy and external contractors are reported in the HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14 in the Statistical Tables, Table 5: Staff Numbers (page 83).

HMRC annual report and accounts: 2013 to 2014 - Publications - GOV.UK

These data are not available by business area.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) costs for external contractors are published on the Cabinet Office website:

www.gov.uk

HMRC costs for consultancy are reported in the HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2013-14 under Other Administration Costs: Other Expenditure (page 138) and Programme Costs: Other Programme Costs (page 140) and are audited by the National Audit Office.

These costs include those for the VOA, which are consolidated with the costs for the core Department.

HMRC annual report and accounts: 2013 to 2014 - Publications - GOV.UK

There have been no explicit discussions abut a ‘Building for the Future’ programme.

However as part of the recently announced Growth Deal with The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership my officials are in regular discussion with both the Partnership and Telford and Wrekin council about the

use of land assets in Telford managed by the Homes and Communities Agency and the joint stewardship arrangements.

Abbey House is occupied by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) under the provisions of the STEPS Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, which runs until 2 April 2021. Parkside Court is occupied by HMRC under an inter department agreement with the Land Registry, who have principal responsibility for this property; the occupancy agreement expires on 5 January 2017. Matheson House is on the HMRC estate, and the lease is not due for renewal until 2 April 2021.

The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department

for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

Results for all wards are available on the Commission's website here:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

The ward results for Telford and Wrekin council were as follows:

The Logistic Commodities and Services Transformation project (LCS(T)) is currently in its Assessment Phase. Invitations to Negotiate were issued to two external bidders in December 2013 and it is expected that negotiations with these bidders will be completed in the autumn of this year followed by project approval in December 2014. It is our intention to decide on the future location of Ministry of Defence (MOD) logistics activity before March 2015.

The Defence Equipment and Support LCS(T) project team, located at MOD Abbey Wood, Bristol and MOD Ensleigh, Bath, draws on 78 civil servants (of which 34 are manpower substitutes) and seven military officers; of these, 36 civil servants (of which 17 are manpower substitutes) and six military officers are involved in the development of the in-house solution.

External assistance for the LCS(T) project is contracted on the basis of man days provided. As at 28 February 2014, £6.1 million has been spent.

Since May 2013 the MOD has held 10 meetings with Telford and Wrekin council. Similarly, there have been nine meetings with Cherwell district council.

MOD Ministers have had no meetings with either council. It would not be appropriate to do so while LCS(T) is still in its Assessment Phase.

The Logistic Commodities and Services Transformation project (LCS(T)) is currently in its Assessment Phase. Invitations to Negotiate were issued to two external bidders in December 2013 and it is expected that negotiations with these bidders will be completed in the autumn of this year followed by project approval in December 2014. It is our intention to decide on the future location of Ministry of Defence (MOD) logistics activity before March 2015.

The Defence Equipment and Support LCS(T) project team, located at MOD Abbey Wood, Bristol and MOD Ensleigh, Bath, draws on 78 civil servants (of which 34 are manpower substitutes) and seven military officers; of these, 36 civil servants (of which 17 are manpower substitutes) and six military officers are involved in the development of the in-house solution.

External assistance for the LCS(T) project is contracted on the basis of man days provided. As at 28 February 2014, £6.1 million has been spent.

Since May 2013 the MOD has held 10 meetings with Telford and Wrekin council. Similarly, there have been nine meetings with Cherwell district council.

MOD Ministers have had no meetings with either council. It would not be appropriate to do so while LCS(T) is still in its Assessment Phase.

The Logistic Commodities and Services Transformation project (LCS(T)) is currently in its Assessment Phase. Invitations to Negotiate were issued to two external bidders in December 2013 and it is expected that negotiations with these bidders will be completed in the autumn of this year followed by project approval in December 2014. It is our intention to decide on the future location of Ministry of Defence (MOD) logistics activity before March 2015.

The Defence Equipment and Support LCS(T) project team, located at MOD Abbey Wood, Bristol and MOD Ensleigh, Bath, draws on 78 civil servants (of which 34 are manpower substitutes) and seven military officers; of these, 36 civil servants (of which 17 are manpower substitutes) and six military officers are involved in the development of the in-house solution.

External assistance for the LCS(T) project is contracted on the basis of man days provided. As at 28 February 2014, £6.1 million has been spent.

Since May 2013 the MOD has held 10 meetings with Telford and Wrekin council. Similarly, there have been nine meetings with Cherwell district council.

MOD Ministers have had no meetings with either council. It would not be appropriate to do so while LCS(T) is still in its Assessment Phase.

The Logistic Commodities and Services Transformation project (LCS(T)) is currently in its Assessment Phase. Invitations to Negotiate were issued to two external bidders in December 2013 and it is expected that negotiations with these bidders will be completed in the autumn of this year followed by project approval in December 2014. It is our intention to decide on the future location of Ministry of Defence (MOD) logistics activity before March 2015.

The Defence Equipment and Support LCS(T) project team, located at MOD Abbey Wood, Bristol and MOD Ensleigh, Bath, draws on 78 civil servants (of which 34 are manpower substitutes) and seven military officers; of these, 36 civil servants (of which 17 are manpower substitutes) and six military officers are involved in the development of the in-house solution.

External assistance for the LCS(T) project is contracted on the basis of man days provided. As at 28 February 2014, £6.1 million has been spent.

Since May 2013 the MOD has held 10 meetings with Telford and Wrekin council. Similarly, there have been nine meetings with Cherwell district council.

MOD Ministers have had no meetings with either council. It would not be appropriate to do so while LCS(T) is still in its Assessment Phase.