Historically, HMRC has made limited use of external data, but is currently trialling the use of credit data purchased from the private sector. HMRC told us that when it agrees a debt repayment plan with a customer (which it refers to as a ‘Time to Pay’ plan), it conducts a structured conversation with the customer to identify all of their income and expenditure, including any other debts they are repaying. Alternatively, if the customer has a ‘single financial statement’ (a standard output used across the credit industry, created during a structured interview with a creditor), HMRC will also accept this statement as the basis for agreeing a Time to Pay plan.33 Until HMRC holds the structured conversation with the customer, it has no means of knowing whether that customer has other significant debts.34