Last year Guido revealed HMRC had 16 equality and inclusion tsars on the payroll, at a cost to the taxpayer of a whopping £1,019,534 a year. Since then, with inflation soaring, the taxman’s need for diversity as he/she/they/them raid your pockets has obviously swollen too. Now they’ve gone from 16 to 22 full-time diversity officers…

According to new Freedom of Information data, since August the department’s central Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Team has, on average, hired an extra pronoun expert every month. The top-ranking new joiner starting on a salary of up to £80,384…

Of the 22 in total, two are now at Grade 6 level (£80,384 a year), seven are at Grade 7 (£66,712 a year), and another seven are now “Higher Officers” (£42,057 a year). In total, assuming the six new hires are London-based, and the cream of the crop, that’s an additional £374,351 to the wage bill courtesy of the taxpayer – or £1,393,885 a year…

In December, HMRC’s phone lines closed for several days due to a “technical issue”, and every year thousands of self-employed workers complain about waiting times ahead of the self-assessment deadline. Don’t worry though, at least they won’t misgender you when they finally pick up.