Official Statistics

UK payrolled employments by nationality, region, industry, age and sex, from July 2014 to December 2023

Published 28 March 2024

Main points

Between December 2022 and December 2023, total payrolled employments in the UK increased by 1%, from 31.7 million to 32.0 million. Employments of:

• UK nationals decreased by 145,600 (1%)
• EU nationals decreased by 78,100 (3%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 580,400 (20%)

Payrolled employments of EU nationals: 

• decreased in all regions; the largest decrease was in London, of 30,400 (4%) 
• decreased in most sectors; the largest decrease was in administrative and support services, of 31,400 (8%) 
• decreased in in each of the under 35 age groups and increased in each of the 35 and over age groups; the largest change was a decrease of 73,500 (10%) in the 25 to 34 age group

Payrolled employments of non-EU nationals: 

• increased in all regions; the largest increase was in London, of 122,700 (12%) 
• increased in all sectors; the largest increase was in health and social work, of 200,000 (31%) 
• increased in all age groups; the largest increase was in the 25 to 34 age group, of 255,400 (32%)

About the data in this release

This publication provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK using HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Pay as You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data and HMRC’s Migrant Worker Scan (MWS).

These statistics cover employments in the PAYE system, they do not include employments from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment.

Nationality

In this release, nationality is defined as that reported by individuals when they register for a National Insurance number through the adult National Insurance number registration process. This process records one nationality per individual at the point of registration and is not updated if an individual subsequently changes nationality or citizenship.

Some non-UK nationals in these statistics will have been granted settled status or naturalised as British citizens. Therefore, the non-UK national figures presented in this release will be higher than the true counts. This will have a greater impact on non-EU national counts, as a higher proportion of non-EU nationals gain British citizenship each year (non-EU nationals represented 77% of total citizenship grants in the year ending September 2023).

Further information on settlement and citizenship is provided in the Home Office immigration statistics. The ONS also produce international migration statistics, which provide a picture of all those leaving and entering the UK.

Nationality at the point of National Insurance number registration is the best and most consistent information currently available for these statistics. In line with our rolling process of continuing improvements to our statistics, HMRC are exploring alternative data sources and cross government linkage options to better reflect current nationality in future releases.

These statistic refer to the following 3 main nationality groups:

Nationality grouping	Definition
UK	The 4 countries of the United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
EU	The 27 member states of the EU
Non-EU	All other countries (excluding the UK and EU member states)

Figure 14 of this release splits EU nationals into further subgroups, EU14, EU8, EU2 and other EU. More information on these additional subgroups is provided in the background section.

New to this release

This release includes additional breakdowns of payrolled employments in the UK by age group and sex. This information is taken from the PAYE RTI data and has been included in response to HMRC’s user consultation process.

Seasonal adjustment

The data in this release are not seasonally adjusted. As payrolled employment counts vary by month, change in employment counts should be calculated using the same month across different years.

Official statistics in development

Official statistics in development are official statistics which are undergoing further refinement. They were formerly known as “experimental statistics”. Further information on the data sources and the meaning of the term ‘official statistics in development’ is provided in the background section of this release.

Contact details

For queries or feedback, please contact:

• T Curd

For press queries, please contact:

• C Raine

• I Jones

Payrolled employments in the UK by nationality, July 2014 to December 2023

This section of the release provides counts and annual growth rates of payrolled employments in the UK, by nationality, from July 2014 to December 2023.

The underlying data for all charts in this release can be found in the accompanying data tables.

Employments of UK nationals have returned to pre-pandemic trends, following a sustained dip during 2020

Figure 1a: Payrolled employments of UK nationals, July 2014 to December 2023

Payrolled employments of UK nationals:

• increased by 1.0 million (4%) between July 2014 and December 2019
• decreased by 853,200 (3%) between December 2019 and December 2020
• increased by 1.0 million (4%) between December 2020 and December 2021, returning to pre-pandemic levels
• were 26.1 million in December 2023

Employments of non-EU nationals have seen large increases post-2020, while employments of EU nationals have decreased

Figure 1b: Payrolled employments of non-UK nationals, July 2014 to December 2023

Figure 1b shows that between July 2014 and December 2023, payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals increased by 2.4 million (68%).

Between July 2014 and December 2019, payrolled employments of:

• EU nationals increased by 798,500 (43%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 424,200 (25%)

Between December 2019 and December 2020, payrolled employments of:

• EU nationals decreased by 187,600 (7%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 12,300 (1%)

Between December 2020 and December 2023, payrolled employments of:

• EU nationals continued to decrease, by 59,200 (2%)
• non-EU nationals increased significantly, by 1.4 million (67%)

Between July 2014 and December 2023, the proportion of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals increased

Figure 1c: The proportion of payrolled employments in the UK, by nationality, July 2014 and December 2023

Date	July 2014	December 2023
UK	88%	81%
EU	6%	7%
Non-EU	6%	11%

Figure 1c shows that between July 2014 and December 2023, the proportion of payrolled employments held by: 

• UK nationals decreased from 88% to 81%
• EU nationals increased from 6% to 7%
• non-EU nationals increased from 6% to 11%

Growth in non-EU employments increased following the pandemic

Figure 2: Percentage change in payrolled employments on the same month in the previous year, by nationality, July 2015 to December 2023

Where the annual growth rate is positive, the number of payrolled employments are higher than they were in the same month in the previous year. Where the annual growth rate is negative, the number of payrolled employments are lower than they were in the same month in the previous year.

For payrolled employments held by UK nationals, annual growth:

• was stable pre-pandemic, fluctuating between 0% and 2%
• decreased to a low of -3% in January 2021, before increasing and peaking at 4% in March 2022
• was -1% in December 2023

For payrolled employments held by EU nationals, annual growth:

• was decreasing but positive pre-pandemic
• decreased to a low of -8% in February 2021, before increasing and peaking at 2% in March 2022
• was -3% in December 2023

For payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals, annual growth:

• was steadily increasing pre-pandemic
• did not become negative during the pandemic period, decreasing to a low of 0% in January 2021
• peaked at 23% in June 2023 and was 20% in December 2023

Payrolled employments by nationality and age group

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and age group.

The majority of payrolled employments were held by 25-to-49-year olds

Figure 3: Proportion of payrolled employments by nationality and age group, December 2023

In December 2023, payrolled employments of 18- to 64-year-olds made up the majority (94%) of employments.

35- to 49-year-olds held the largest proportion of payrolled employments in each nationality group, accounting for 30% of UK nationals, 49% of EU nationals and 43% of non-EU nationals.

Payrolled employments of individuals aged 50 and over accounted for 33% of UK nationals, 20% of EU nationals and 19% of non-EU nationals.

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in all age groups

Figure 4: Change in payrolled employments by nationality and age group between December 2022 and December 2023

Between December 2022 and December 2023, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals aged 65 and over increased by 64,200 (6%), however employments in all other age groups decreased
• EU nationals decreased in each of the under 35 age groups, with the largest decrease seen in 25- to 34-year-olds, of 73,500 (10%). Comparatively, payrolled employments held by EU nationals increased in each of the 35 and over age groups
• non-EU nationals increased in all age groups, the largest increase was of 255,400 (32%), in 25- to 34-year-olds

Payrolled employments by nationality and region

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and region.

Geographic location for payrolled employments is recorded based on where the corresponding individual lives, not where they work. Where the information is missing, employments have been assigned values proportionally, based on historic trends.

London had the highest number of non-UK national employments in December 2023

Figure 5: Payrolled employments by nationality and region, December 2023

In December 2023, London had the largest number of payrolled employments, at 4.6 million. Of these, 737,600 (16%) were held by EU nationals and 1.2 million (25%) were held by non-EU nationals.

Payrolled employments of UK nationals were higher in both the South East (3.7 million) and the North West (3.0 million) than London (2.7 million), despite London having a higher number of total employments.

Northern Ireland had the smallest number of payrolled employments, at 846,600. However, employments of EU nationals (54,400), were larger in Northern Ireland than in both Wales (46,000) and the North East (29,100).

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in all regions of the UK

Figure 6: Change in payrolled employments by nationality and region between December 2022 and December 2023

Between December 2022 and December 2023, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals decreased in all regions other than Northern Ireland, where there was an increase of 4,800 (1%). The largest decrease was in London, of 47,000 (2%)
• EU nationals decreased in all regions. The smallest decrease was in the North East, of 200 (1%) and the largest decrease was in London, of 30,400 (4%)
• non-EU nationals increased in all regions. The smallest increase was in Northern Ireland, of 9,200 (34%) and the largest was in London, of 122,700 (12%)

Payrolled employments by nationality and industrial sector

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and industrial sector (SIC2007).

Health and social work had the highest number of non-UK national employments

Figure 7: Payrolled employments by nationality, top 10 largest sectors, December 2023

In December 2023, health and social work had the highest number of payrolled employments, 4.7 million. Of these, 228,500 (5%) were held by EU nationals and 845,100 (18%) were held by non-EU nationals.

Wholesale and retail was the second largest sector, with 4.6 million employments. Of these, 307,400 (7%) were held by EU nationals and 390,100 (9%) were held by non-EU nationals.

Administrative and support services had the largest proportion of non-UK employments, 31%. Of these, 13% were of EU nationals and 19% were of non-EU nationals.

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in all sectors between December 2022 and December 2023

Figure 8: Change in payrolled employments by nationality, top 10 largest sectors, between December 2022 and December 2023

Between December 2022 and December 2023, of the top 10 largest sectors, the largest increase in payrolled employments was seen in education, of 32,800 (1%) and the largest decrease was seen in wholesale and retail, of 93,800 (2%).

The largest increase in employments of EU nationals of any top 10 sector was seen in education, of 3,200 (2%) and the largest decrease was seen in administrative and support services, of 31,400 (8%).

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in every sector, the largest increase was in health and social work, of 200,000 (31%).

Payrolled employments by nationality, industrial sector and sex

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and sex.

Compared to the UK average, sex distribution varies by nationality group

Figure 9: The sex distribution of payrolled employments by nationality and sector, December 2023

In December 2023, 51% of payrolled employments of UK nationals were held by women compared to 52% of employments of EU nationals and 49% of employments of non-EU nationals.

Health and social work had the largest proportion of payrolled employments held by women (78%) and mining and quarrying had the largest proportion held by men (83%).

Public administration and defence had the largest variation in sex distribution by nationality. Employments of both UK and non-EU nationals were 51% women, whereas 68% of employments of EU nationals were women.

Payrolled employments by nationality, industrial sector and region

The following section provides a deep dive into 2 contrasting sectors: health and social care and manufacturing.  Data for all other sectors by region and nationality group can be found in the accompanying data tables.

Payrolled employments in the health and social work sector, by nationality and region

In December 2023, health and social work was the largest sector in the UK, with 4.7 million employments. This accounted for 15% of total payrolled employments in the UK.

The South East had the largest number of employments in health and social work

Figure 10: Payrolled employment in health and social work, by nationality and region, December 2023

In December 2023, the South East had the highest number of payrolled employments in health and social work, at 622,700. Of these, 28% were of non-UK nationals.

London had the highest proportion of non-UK national employments, with 10% EU and 36% non-EU national employments.

Compared to total payrolled employment counts (see figure 5), the proportion of employments in health and social work held by non-UK nationals was higher in every region. The South East had the largest difference, with 28% of employments in health and social work held by non-UK nationals, compared to 19% of total employments.

Employments of non-EU nationals in health and social work increased in all regions

Figure 11: Change in payrolled employments in health and social work, by nationality and region between December 2022 and December 2023

Between December 2022 and December 2023, payrolled employments in health and social work increased by 213,300 (5%).

Payrolled employments of UK nationals were stable in all regions. The largest increase was in the North West, of 4,100 (1%) and the largest decrease was in Scotland, of 800 (0%).

The largest increase in employments of EU nationals was in the North West, 700 (5%) and the largest decrease was in London, of 700 (1%).

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in all regions. London had the largest absolute increase, of 30,700 (18%). The North East had the largest proportional increase, of 7,200 (48%).

Payrolled employments in the manufacturing sector, by nationality and region

In December 2023, there were 2.4 million (7%) payrolled employments in manufacturing. Of these, 82% were of UK nationals, 12% were of EU nationals and 6% were of non-EU nationals.

The North West had the largest number of employments in manufacturing

Figure 12: Payrolled employments in manufacturing by nationality and region

In December 2023, the North West had the highest number of payrolled employments manufacturing, at 297,400. Of these, 14% were of non-UK nationals.

London had the highest proportion of non-UK national employments, with 21% EU and 24% non-EU national employments. There were more employments of EU nationals than non-EU nationals in every sector outside of London.

Compared to total payrolled employment counts (see figure 5), the proportion of employments in manufacturing held by EU nationals was higher in every region. Northern Ireland had the largest difference, with 18% of employments in manufacturing held by EU nationals, compared to 6% of total employments.

Employments of UK and EU nationals in manufacturing decreased in all regions

Figure 13: Change in payrolled employments in manufacturing, by nationality and region, between December 2022 and December 2023

Between December 2022 and December 2023, total payrolled employments in manufacturing decreased by 27,600 (1%).

Payrolled employments of UK and EU nationals decreased in all regions, whereas employments of non-EU nationals increased in every region. This resulted in a decrease in total employments in all regions other than Northern Ireland, where employments increased by 700 (1%).

The largest decrease in employments of UK nationals was seen in Yorkshire and the Humber, of 7,500 (3%) and the largest decrease in employments of EU nationals was seen in London, of 1,700 (7%). The largest increase in employments of non-EU nationals was seen in the West Midlands, of 4,000 (22%).

Payrolled employments of non-UK nationals in agriculture, forestry and fishing

The following section provides payrolled employments in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector, by the EU nationality subgroups: EU2, EU8, EU14 and other EU. Definitions of these groupings can be found in the background section of this release.

Trends in payrolled employments of non-UK nationals in agriculture, forestry and fishing have changed in the period following the UK leaving the EU on 31 January 2020.

Employments of non-EU nationals in agriculture, forestry and fishing have increased since December 2020

Figure 14: Payrolled employments of non-EU nationals in agriculture, forestry and fishing, July 2014 to December 2023

Between July 2019 and July 2023, payrolled employments of:

• EU14 nationals decreased by 100 (5%)
• EU8 nationals decreased by 6,000 (34%)
• EU2 nationals decreased by 13,200 (44%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 13,600 (389%)

Between July 2014 and December 2023, the level of seasonal variation in payrolled employments of non-UK nationals increased, while the level of seasonal variation in payrolled employments of all 3 EU sub-groups decreased.

Background

This section provides information about the methodology and quality assurance steps used in the production of this publication.

Limitations of the data

These statistics cover all UK employments in the UK administered by employers through the PAYE Real Time Information service in the period 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2023. Employments paid through other sources of income such as self-employment are not included.

These data include imputation for payments not yet received by HMRC which would relate to the respective work periods. The fraction of imputed figures is very small, but this does mean that more recent months are prone to revisions in future publications as payments related to these months continue to be received.

In this release, nationality is defined as that reported by individuals when they register for a National Insurance number through the adult National Insurance number registration process. This process records one nationality per individual at the point of registration and is not updated if an individual subsequently changes nationality or citizenship.

Some non-UK nationals in these statistics will have been granted settled status or naturalised as British citizens. Therefore, the non-UK national figures presented in this release are higher than true counts.

The figures reflect adult overseas nationals allocated a National Insurance number through the adult registration process. In addition, there will be a small number of overseas nationals (aged 16 to 19 years) allocated a National Insurance number through the juvenile registration process. This occurs when the individual has previously been allocated a child reference number. These juvenile cases are not captured by these statistics and these individuals will be classified as UK nationals.

Some individuals with the right to work in the UK will pay tax using a temporary reference number (TRN) rather than a National Insurance number. These are not identified in the MWS and so have been classified as UK nationals. This could inflate counts for UK nationals.

Comparability and related publications

Care needs to be taken when comparing these statistics to other sources.

Payrolled employments cannot be directly compared with payrolled employees. Payrolled employees can have multiple payrolled employments, therefore payrolled employment counts should follow similar trends to payrolled employee counts, but counts will be higher.

The payrolled employment counts provided in these statistics do not capture all jobs in the UK. These statistics only include employments from the PAYE system, they do not include employments from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment.

Any comparisons to estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) should be treated with caution. Differences between the two sources are possible for reasons including, but not limited to, sampling variability in the LFS, as well as definitional differences in nationality and payrolled employments as outlined above. For more information see Comparison of labour market data sources.

HMRC and ONS: Earnings and employment from PAYE RTI statistics

The joint HMRC and ONS earnings and employment from PAYE RTI statistics provide counts of payrolled employees at a UK level, on both a seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted basis. This release also includes breakdowns by industrial sector and region. As a payrolled employee might have multiple concurrent payrolled employments, total employee counts are lower than the corresponding employment counts.

The chart below shows the difference between the joint HMRC and ONS release and this release. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, payrolled employments are at a higher level but follow similar trends to the number of payrolled employees.

On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, payrolled employments are at a higher level than payrolled employees, following similar trends

Figure 15: Payrolled employments and payrolled employees, non-seasonally adjusted, July 2014 to December 2023

ONS: Labour market overview

The ONS publish a monthly labour market overview for the UK. This includes estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity and other employment-related statistics. It brings together estimates from multiple sources of data including HMRC PAYE RTI data, the ONS Labour Force Survey and the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey.

DWP: National Insurance number allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK

The DWP quarterly statistics on National Insurance number allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK provide a count of foreign nationals registered for a National Insurance number, and their nationality at the time of registering. They do not show the number of foreign nationals who have started work or are currently in work.

ONS: International migration

The ONS international migration statistics provide estimates of the number of people moving in and out of the UK, long term migration, short term migration, and non-UK resident’s data providing a picture of those entering and leaving the UK, covering all lengths of stay.

Definitions

Payrolled employment

Payrolled employment counts are a measure of payrolled employee jobs. A single employee may have multiple concurrent employments across different 2007 SIC code groupings. Values for employee jobs are calculated based on the proportion of each month in which the employment was being worked. For example, if an employment started halfway through the month, then it would be counted as half an employment when aggregated up.

This approach aligns with the methodology used in the monthly earnings and employment estimates from PAYE RTI data.

Pay As You Earn

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is the system that employers and pension providers use to take Income Tax and National Insurance contributions before they pay wages or pensions to employees and pensioners. It was introduced in 1944 and is now the way that most employees pay Income Tax in the UK. This publication relates to employments only, not employees or pensioners.

Nationality

For most residents in the UK (including foreign nationals), National Insurance numbers are automatically issued when an individual turns 15 years and 9 months old. This standard registration process does not collate information on nationality.

Individuals who are not allocated a National Insurance number through the standard registration process (for example, those who come from abroad after the age of 16 or who have never been part of a Child Benefit or Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) claim) are required to apply for a National Insurance number through the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) adult National Insurance number registration process. This process records nationality at the point of registration. Subsequent naturalisation (to UK citizenship), other changes in nationality and multiple nationalities are not recorded.

In these statistics, we refer to 3 main nationality groups: UK, EU and non-EU.

The accompanying data tables also provide total payrolled employment counts by industrial sector and further EU subgroups: EU14, EU8, EU2 and other EU.

Nationality grouping	Definition
UK	The 4 countries of the United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
EU	The 27 member states of the EU
EU14	Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain and Sweden
EU8	Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia
EU2	Bulgaria and Romania
Other EU	Malta, Cyprus and Croatia
Non-EU	Non-EU countries excludes the UK and all EU member states

Industry (Standard Industry Classification - SIC)

The industrial sectors in this bulletin are based on the UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, as defined by the ONS. These codes have been determined from both the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) and data from Companies House for each PAYE enterprise.

Large enterprises, covering multiple SIC codes are classified into a single SIC code based on the relative number of employees in each SIC code. Changes to the proportion of employees across SIC codes in large enterprises can result in the enterprise being reclassified to a different SIC code. As we link to the most recent quarterly version of the IDBR at the enterprise level, where an employer has been reclassified into a different SIC code, the most recent code is applied across the whole of the time series that is updated monthly.

This means that sector level time series represent the current employers classified in each sector and are less likely to be distorted by employers being reclassified at the enterprise level due to small changes at the lower unit level. However, it also means that these time series may be revised between publications and, in the historical sections of the time series, employers are classified in sectors that they weren’t classified in at that point in time.

For some payrolled employments, the high-level 2007 SIC code groupings are unknown. These employments are grouped with the Household and Extraterritorial Organisations Industries.

Region (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics - NUTS)

Estimates in this publication are available for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the nine English regions, in accordance with the NUTS classification which came into force on 1 January 2015. The Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) provides a single uniform breakdown to produce regional statistics.

Geographic location for employments is recorded based on where the corresponding individual lives, not where they work. Employments where the information is missing are assigned values based on proportions from historic trends.

Data Sources

Real Time Information (RTI) for Pay As You Earn (PAYE)

The data for this release comes from the HMRC PAYE RTI system. It covers the whole population rather than a sample of people or companies and allows for more detailed estimates of the population.

As individuals who were furloughed as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme should still have their employments reported through this system, they should feature in these data and contribute toward the employment statistics for the relevant period.

Migrant Worker Scan (MWS)

The MWS is a quarterly extract or subset of data, compiled from the National Insurance and Pay as You Earn Service (NPS) database system. The NPS system is owned by HMRC, with input from DWP. The January 2024 extract of the MWS was used for this analysis.

DWP currently register post-16 National Insurance numbers through their adult registration process, which usually includes checks to verify identity and right to work in the UK. In some circumstances, DWP will allocate National Insurance numbers following a successful application through the Home Office (HO) for a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) or another ‘fast path’ application process.

In all the above scenarios, DWP will allocate the National Insurance number and send the information to the NPS system, including details of their nationality at the point of application.

Methodology

An accompanying article contains more information on the calendarisation and imputation methodologies used in these statistics, alongside comparisons with other earnings and employment statistics.

Statistics in this release are based on people who are employed in at least one job paid through PAYE, and monthly estimates reflect the average number of payrolled employments held by such individuals for each day of the calendar month. This aligns with the methodology used in the monthly RTI statistics.

A seasonal adjustment factor is not applied to these statistics, however the data is subject to seasonality. Drivers of seasonality in the statistics are likely to be linked to seasonality in employment and within certain industries, so care should be taken when comparing estimates on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Official statistics in development

Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing further refinement. They were formerly known as “experimental statistics”.

These statistics use the same underlying data and methodology as the joint HMRC and ONS official statistics in publication on earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI).

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards.

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Pre-release data

HMRC grants pre-release access to Official Statistics publications, and in accordance with the HMRC policy, 24 hour pre-release access has been granted to a number of people to enable the preparation of a ministerial briefing. Further details, including a list of those granted access, can be found on HMRC pages on GOV.UK.