Speeches

Dominic Raab – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dominic Raab on 2014-06-17.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions have been brought for tax offences in each year since 2008-09.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is not a prosecuting authority. Where cases do proceed to the criminal courts the prosecution is carried out by the relevant independent prosecuting authority. This is the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in Scotland, and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPSNI).

Please note that figures for tax evasion exclude those cases prosecuted for money laundering, other prohibitions and restrictions and other non-fiscal offences.

We can provide the following information in respect of totals of tax evasion prosecutions

Year

Total number of persons prosecuted for tax evasion

2010-11

372

2011-12

501

2012-13

739

2013-14

880

HMRC is not able to supply a time series of full year prosecution decisions and convictions resulting from their criminal investigations for years up to 2009–10. Complete, comparable data is only available from 2010–11 onwards.