asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many civil servants are employed in the Inland Revenue; and how many are employed in similar Departments in the United States of America and in other EEC countries.

At 1 November 1979 the Inland Revenue's total staff in post, including staff serving on short-term engagements, was 80,100. The information available about the overseas countries referred to is given below: information is not available for Denmark, Luxembourg, and the Irish Republic. The figures are not comparable with those for the United Kingdom because, in addition to differences in the taxation systems, the Revenue staff numbers abroad include those concerned with the collection of indirect taxation.