A very interesting question indeed...

In preparing the Liberal Democrat Voice preview of the week ahead in the Lords, I had noticed an intriguing question from one of the new Labour Peers, Lord Sahota, on the question of tax return processing. Intriguing, because it isn't that often that the Lords addresses the management and effectiveness of HM Revenue & Customs. And, given that I didn't even know if there was a Treasury Minister in the Lords, I was also curious to see who would have to get up and defend us on behalf of the Government.

The answers turned out to be:

• criticism of HMRC's handling of telephone calls

• Baroness Vere of Norbiton

In fairness, the decision to direct as many callers as possible to HMRC's digital offering has been the subject of much criticism, especially at what is the busiest time of year for Self Assessment tax return completion. That said, we do allow a relatively generous amount of time for returns to be completed and submitted (nearly ten months compared to, for example, three and a half months in the United States) and, whilst human nature tends to leave unpleasant tasks to the last minute, most people have the information needed to complete their returns by mid-summer. And yes, I've been guilty of leaving it until late in the past too.

There was the usual cheap jibe at civil servants working at home (yes, Patrick McLoughlin, I did notice...), but I have to say that my personal experience was of being flat out on calls and hanging on to clear the backlog after regular working hours. And I can testify to Charlotte Vere's reply that contact centre staff are keenly monitored to ensure that their performance meets the targets set, regardless of whether they're working from the office or their home.

Whilst Lord Sahota referred to staffing numbers - dramatically understating them by claiming that there are 19,000 staff when there are, as of November, 66,256 - nobody seemed to conclude that, perhaps, there might not be enough staff to do what Ministers require of HMRC.

That's a question that's above my paygrade (in every sense) but, as in so much public administration, if you will the ends, you must furnish the means.

But it was brave of Charlotte Vere to admit that she had personally had to call HMRC earlier this week, and that she had waited about twenty minutes for her call to be answered. Most people wouldn't be terribly pleased to wait that long, although it seems to be increasingly standard for private companies too - don't start me about banks, airlines and furniture companies.

I'll be intrigued to see if there is any follow up as a result of the brief debate, but I'm not expecting much, based on experience...