In addition, the government has announced substantial investment in HMRC’s IT systems over the next three years with cybersecurity and resilience seen as priority areas.

The government is also providing a discrete fund of £55m next year for the taxpayer protection taskforce, which was first announced at Spring Budget 2021, expanding HMRC’s compliance work while continuing to pursue those who have abused the government’s Covid-19 support schemes. The primary function of this group is tackling the multimillion pound abuse of the furlough scheme and bounce back loans.

In addition, as part of the spending review settlement, HMRC will receive a further £292m across three years for more resources to tackle the tax gap and ensure that as much as tax as possible is collected.