§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of morale within the Inland Revenue; what redundancies have been made and for what reasons; what is the current backlog in dealing with tax cases and the corresponding figure for the last three years; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. DorrellThere has been no general survey of morale recently. Two surveys by the industrial society carried out in 1992 found evidence of low morale in a number of parts of the Inland Revenue.
In 1992–93 there were 355 voluntary early retirements. In 1993–94 to the end of October there have been 191 voluntary early retirements, and four compulsory redundancies.
Key indicators of work state in the Inland Revenue are as follows:
643W
Per cent November 1993 1992–93 1991–92 1990–91 Post dealt with in 28 days [...]99.0 [...]98.0 1— 1— Employee cases cleared within two years of the end of the relevant tax year large/complex cases 95.3 96.9 90.0 80.2 other cases 98.8 99.6 99.0 98.0 Assessments on the self-employed made to meet the due date 297.5 97.5 97.5 98.3 1 New target in 1992–93. 2 The programme ends in December. It is currently on course to meet the 97.5 per cent. target.