Hmrc Office Must Stay In Chesterfield

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 10th May 2007

Commenting on today's meeting in the House of Commons for MPs representing constituencies affected by HMRC restructuring, Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield said:

"In Chesterfield many HMRC employees are part time workers who are also carers. It is unreasonable to expect these employees to make the long and difficult journey through heavily congested roads to offices in Sheffield. Chesterfield also needs to keep its face-to-face service.

"It appears that HMRC has accepted the arguments for merging the two offices in Chesterfield rather than closing both and completely relocating to Sheffield.

"HMRC's consultation on office closures is now coming to an end and their report will be sent to Dawn Primarolo, the Minister responsible, at the end of the month.

"However, until the Minister makes her announcement on the final plans we cannot know whether Chesterfield will keep an HMRC office.

"The Minister is not going to make a statement on the final plans until late July, probably in the last week of Parliamentary term. This will leave no opportunity for MPs to ask questions or demand a debate and is a typical Labour tactic for burying bad news.

"The Government must make sure that MPs and employees have the opportunity to question and respond to the final decision on HMRC office mergers."