Orkney and Shetland MP Alistair Carmichael today questioned the Leader of the House of Commons, Ms Harriet Harman MP and called for a House of Commons debate on the closure of the Lerwick HMRC office, after describing parts of HMRC management as believing they are ‘not accountable to anyone’.

Mr Carmichael yesterday raised a ‘point of order’ with the Speaker of the House of Commons regarding the closure of the Lerwick HMRC branch following last weeks’ written ministerial statement made by the Financial Secretary, which said the Lerwick branch was to be ‘retained’.Alistair Carmichael MP

Speaking during Business Questions in the House of Commons, Mr Carmichael said – “Might we have an early debate on the written ministerial statement made last week by the Financial Secretary on the subject of HMRC office closures. As I explained to the House yesterday in a Point of Order, that statement indicated that the Lerwick office in my constituency would be retained and that it was not part of the review. At the same time as that statement was being made, HMRC management were arranging to remove the last of the staff, so we might have an office which is open but we will have nobody working in it. I do not question for a second the good faith of the Financial Secretary who is a man of integrity and who is respected in all parts of the House, but it is pretty clear to me that there elements within HMRC management who don’t feel there are accountable to anyone, we need to make them accountable and an early debate in this place would be an important start to this process.”

Replying, Leader of the House, Harriet Harman MP - “I will ask the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to write to the Honourable member about the Lerwick HMRC office.”

Commenting after his exchange in the House of Commons, Mr Carmichael said – “The behaviour of HMRC management demonstrates a contempt for the tax payers who pay there wages. Seeking to remove a VAT office from Shetland in this way when they had previously identified the need cannot be left unchallenged. I shall be encouraging the Minister to bang heads together and not only to maintain an HMRC office in Shetland but to apologise for the cack-handed attempt to remove it.”