§ Mr. Moyleasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the sum of money spent by the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise in investigating cases of tax evasion during the last convenient financial year for which figures are available.
§ Sir Geoffrey Howe[pursuant to his reply, 24 February 1982, c. 396]: For the financial year 1980–81 the cost of the specialised investigation units of the Inland Revenue—enquiry branch, investigation office and special offices—was approximately £6.1 million; the cost of investigating the major cases of value added tax evasion which were dealt with by those officers of Customs and Excise investigation division engaged exclusively on that work was approximately £3.5 million. The total 522W expenditure on investigating tax evasion is much higher since its detection forms part of the normal duties of the majority of the staff of Inland Revenue and the majority of the staff of Customs and Excise engaged on value added tax.