What estimate he has made of the number of staff at HM Revenue and Customs who will receive bonus payments in 2007-08.
A final figure for the number of staff at HMRC who will receive bonus payments in 2007-08 is not available, because the period has not yet ended. Bonuses were received by 35,916 staff in 2005-06 and 38,179 staff in 2006-07.
Can the right hon. Lady confirm whether the amount expected by those people will be more than £23 million? In light of the losses of 25 million people's data on the twin discs and the Standard Life pensioners' details, is she not concerned that the payments will be seen as a reward for failure?
I am not going to be drawn into speculation about what the estimate might be for the end of the year. We do not yet know how many members of staff will have earned a bonus. It is important to remember that, in line with what happens in the wider civil service, bonuses are paid to encourage and reward performance.
Notwithstanding the incident to which the hon. Gentleman refers, HMRC's staff are working extremely hard to improve performance. They are making genuine progress in customer service—I am sure that many hon. Members would be prepared to acknowledge that that is happening in a number of fields, in particular tax credits. HMRC is internationally recognised as one of the leading tax administrations in the world, and when members of staff receive a bonus for their performance, it is because it has been very well earned. I do not accept that there is any indication of failure.
May I ask the Financial Secretary to give another estimate? What estimate does she make of the number of staff likely to lose their jobs as a result of the dramatic closure of tax offices in Merseyside and Southport?
The hon. Gentleman knows that the existing network of offices does not match how HMRC will need to operate in the future. Like any other public service, it needs to examine its operations in detail and compare its processes and procedures with those of the best in the world. That is what HMRC is doing. All the staff affected by last Friday's announcements will be able to consult their managers to ensure that changes affecting them are handled in the most appropriate way for their circumstances. I hope that he will acknowledge that HMRC has an agreement with the trade unions, which handles this process in a good way.
How will the HMRC bonus scheme deal with staff who apparently break rules designed to protect taxpayer confidentiality when posting tax returns between offices in order to cut costs and paperwork? Have no lessons been learned from discgate?
If the hon. Gentleman has been studying the work that HMRC has been doing, he will know that it has implemented several changes already in response to lessons that were and are being learned as a result of the loss of the data. Opposition Members are seeking to exploit press speculation about what may or may not happen with bonuses. The HMRC staff who earn bonuses will have done so because of the efforts they have made to improve performance and to learn from experiences such as happened last year.