- HMRC has just announced it is spending tens of millions of pounds to close 130 offices.
- How much money has been set aside or is available to pay for the early releases and redundancies required to deal with the 3,150 affected staff? What will be the estates, IT and extra travel costs of moving staff to other offices?
- How much money does HMRC expect to save by closing these 130 offices? If the Department expects to save hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds by closing these 130 offices-what strategy does Mapeley have to cope without that income?
- Has Mapeley been consulted on the closures and given sufficient time to implement plans to tenant the empty buildings and retain an income from the estate?
- It is noted that the Department needed to bail out Mapeley within a year of the contract being signed. If Mapeley's financial position were to struggle, what would the Department's response be? If HMRC were able to assist Mapeley financially, how would this be funded?
- If the company was to fail what effect would this have on the HMRC estate?
- The National Audit Office1 report highlights the STEPS contract being comparably lower than other Departments due to the number of regional offices within the Estate. With the Workforce Change office closure programme likely to reduce this number, is it the case that HMRC still getting value for money?
- HMRC is criticised for not considering Mapeley's profits during the Workforce Change programme. What are the impacts of Workforce Change on Mapeley's profits?
- Why has HMRC not committed sufficient resources, commercial and legal, to managing the contract? What effect will job losses have on this area of work?
- Given that value for money is not going to be realised for the lifetime of the 20 year contract, why was an "escape" clause not negotiated at the time?
- Are HMRC aware of Mapeley's banking and tax payment arrangements? Mapeley bank off-shore, thus depriving the Exchequer of income. Can HMRC provide assurance that monies paid by them under the STEPS Contract which attract tax, are banked in the UK?
19 January 2010
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1 National Audit Office report-HM Revenue & Customs' estate private finance deal eight years on-10 December 2009.