responded to just 72.5% of calls and over the first half of 2015 this had fallen to 50%. The previous Committee considered that HMRC’s target of answering 80% of telephone calls within five minutes was “woefully inadequate and unambitious” and recommended that HMRC should set a more challenging short-term target for call-waiting times and a long-term target that is much closer to industry standards. HMRC has consistently refused to set more demanding targets, however, and in 2014-15 it answered only 39% of calls within five minutes. HMRC did not provide the Committee with any indication of when or by how much its customer service would improve, beyond a vague aim to improve year on year. It acknowledged that people are more likely to pay the right tax when they find HMRC easy to deal with, but, in the words of its own Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary, “we are still struggling”.
CIPP comment Can we expect more of this type of service as the government continues its departmental cuts? Surely it is about time that HMRC was ring fenced from any more cuts to allow them to provide the level of customer service require, which will ultimately result in an increase in tax revenue.
HMRC to become a tax authority fit for the future 13 November 2015
HMRC has announced the next step in its ten-year modernisation programme to create a tax authority fit for the future, committing to high-quality jobs and the creation of 13 new regional centres over the next five years, serving every nation and region in the UK. The 13 offices will be large and modern, equipped with the digital infrastructure and training facilities needed to build a more highly-skilled workforce. HMRC will open its first new regional centre in 2016-17, with others following between 2017 and 2021. The new regional centres will be located in:
North East (Newcastle) North West (Manchester and Liverpool) Yorkshire and the Humber (Leeds)
East Midlands (Nottingham) West Midlands (Birmingham) Wales (Cardiff) Northern Ireland (Belfast) Scotland (Glasgow and Edinburgh) South West (Bristol) London, South East and East of England (Stratford and Croydon).
HMRC cannot currently say more about the exact locations, as they need to negotiate with landlords and contractors, but they will be locations in the cities named with good transport links.
The modernisation programme, now at the halfway point, includes investment in new online services, data analytics, new compliance techniques, new skills and new ways of working, to make it easier for the honest majority of customers to pay their tax, including by improving customer service, and harder for the dishonest minority to cheat the system. The changes have already resulted in over 80% of people filing their Self Assessment returns online and given customers new, simple ways to check their payments, make changes or find answers to questions.
Lin Homer, HMRC’s Chief Executive, said:
“HMRC is committed to modern, regional centres serving every region and nation in the UK, with skilled and varied jobs and development opportunities, while also ensuring jobs are spread throughout the UK and not concentrated in the capital. HMRC has too many expensive, isolated and outdated offices. This makes it difficult for us to collaborate, modernise our ways of working, and make the changes we need to transform our service to customers and clamp down further on the minority who try to cheat the system. The new regional centres will bring our staff together in more modern and cost-effective buildings in areas with lower rents. They will also make a big contribution to the cities where they are based, providing high-quality, skilled jobs and supporting the Government’s commitment for a national recovery that benefits all parts of the UK.”
CIPP Policy News Journal
25/04/2016, Page 210 of 453
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