More and more people are using the internet to bank, shop and pay their bills and would welcome opportunities to transact with government departments online or through other digital means at a time which suits them. The ‘digital by default’ proposition for government services has its origins in the review published by Martha Lane Fox in November 2010. The review (which was endorsed by the Government’s response) recommended that public services should be delivered online or digitally and non digital solutions should only be introduced as an exception. The review said that as well as providing better, more personalised services for citizens to use when they needed them the shift to digital channels had the potential to deliver significant cost savings. HMRC’S Digital Strategy To continue to provide the best possible tax service HMRC needs to embrace the digital by default agenda and redesign its old, manual processes to exploit the opportunities that technology now offers. A more flexible, transparent and modern service will enable customers to deal with all of their tax affairs in a single place. HMRC published its Digital Strategy in December 2012. This set out our ambition to provide a transparent tax system enabled by customer-focused digital services which are so straightforward and convenient that everyone (and their agents) who can use them will choose to do so. Spending Review 2013, which details the Government’s spending plans for 2015-16, allocated more than £200 million over the next three years to enable HMRC to achieve its ambition of becoming an increasingly digital business, offering a personalised and efficient online service. CIPP comment It has also been decided that Agents and business will continue in the interim to use the Government Gateway credentials for accessing online services. IDA (Identity Assurance) will be used by Citizens first. This is good news as it at least provides the confirmation of a decision (rather than a ‘we are thinking about it’ message). Members who currently only have FBI2 authorities to enable them to receive online information on behalf of a client will need to have 64-8 authorisations in place – the quick poll that we have been running during the summer shows that 69% currently have both but that leaves 31% with some work to do if they want to be accessing client information. It is the 64-8 that will give that permission and not the FBI2.
Agent Online Self Serve (AOSS) and the Agents Strategy
17 September 2014
HMRC have issued a new Briefing Note explaining the latest developments regarding the information about the availability of the new AOSS Service.
The briefing covers:
Initial plans for the availability of the new AOSS Service Proposed timescales Cleansing and validating client lists Third party software Developing options through the Agents Strategy.
CIPP Policy News Journal
08/04/2015, Page 499 of 521
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