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<p>Further to my response on 15 January 2019 to PQ 207321, daily take-up during this
pilot stage has now increased to over 200 businesses a day, and total take-up has
increased to over 6,000.</p><p> </p><p>As set out in my previous response, a key objective
of this pilot stage is to ensure that full testing is undertaken with the full range
of mandated business types, so that improvements to the service and customer support
model can be made where necessary. The technical aspects of the service have been
rigorously tested to date with a cross-section of business types, including specific
trades, representative of the wider business population. While we expect take-up to
increase further in the run-up to the mandation date, it would be misleading for the
reasons set out in my previous response for that to be the sole focus. At this stage,
in line with expectations and plans, take-up is a small but growing proportion of
the overall mandated population of 1.1 million.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC is continuing to
issue letters to all businesses in scope inviting them to join early, alongside a
range of other communications activity, which is increasing participation in the pilot.
HMRC’s assessment is that progress with take-up across the range of business types
and other delivery activity is on track to be ready to mandate the service for VAT
periods which start on or after 1 April 2019.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has continued
to engage with stakeholders and listen to their concerns about business readiness.
In October I announced a 6 month delay for those customers with the most complex requirements,
to ensure there is sufficient time for testing the service with them in the pilot
before they are mandated to join from 1 October 2019.</p>
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