HMRC should ‘take seriously’ recommendations, says spending watchdog chairman
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The chairman of a spending watchdog has urged HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to “take seriously” its recommendations, including that it should put customers’ needs at the heart of its decision-making and allocate sufficient resources to customer service.
A report, published by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday, highlighted concerns that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has been degrading its own services “as a matter of policy” and damaging public confidence in the tax system. It has sparked a robustly worded exchange of letters between leaders of the two organisations.
Sir Jim Harra, First Permanent Secretary and chief executive of HMRC said in a letter to PAC chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: “I am disturbed by the committee’s claims that HMRC is deliberately degrading its customer services performance as a matter of policy and that service levels continue to deteriorate.
“I refute these claims in the strongest terms.”. Sir Jim continued: “HMRC has always deployed its available resources to maximise its performance across all customer services channels and continually strives to meet its service standards. “In 2023-24, there was a growing taxpayer population with more complex needs. Combined with budget constraints, this meant that we were not able to meet our service standards.
