Recommendations & Conclusions
11 items
3
Conclusion
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
HMRC has been too willing to let its telephone services fail in the hope this forces people to use its digital services instead. HMRC estimates 66% of calls it receives could be handled online instead. It hopes that by encouraging customers to use digital services it can free up its …
Government response. The government states it has expanded Extra Support teams and funded community organisations, and will publish a Transformation Roadmap in 2025 outlining plans to extend digital services, ensure digital inclusion, and support customers who cannot interact digitally.
HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
HMRC’s investment in debt management has not sufficiently reduced the amount of tax owed to it. In 2023–24, the government announced £303 million additional funding for HMRC to improve its capacity to manage tax debts. This followed £47.2 million announced in 2022–23. Despite this investment, the tax debt balance fell …
Government response. The government commits to responding to the Committee by September 2025, outlining its expectations for the tax debt balance by 2029-30 and plans for recovering older debts.
HM Treasury
6
Conclusion
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
We welcome HMRC’s new goal to reduce the tax gap but we are concerned that it still plans to reduce the number of prosecutions. HMRC expects to bring in £6.5 billion additional tax revenue by 2029–30 as a result of measures set out at the Autumn Budget 2024, and has …
Government response. The government agrees with the recommendation, stating it will increase counter-fraud capability and publish an updated Issue Brief detailing its ambitions to address fraud and its increased effectiveness through civil and criminal powers, also committing to publish a target for …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on its performance in 2023– 24 and its customer service.1
Government response. The government states it is actively exploring the use of callbacks and will launch procurement for a new Contact Service platform in spring 2025, aiming for it to be in place by 2026-27.
HM Treasury
7
Recommendation
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
We asked whether HMRC provides customers with information on expected call waiting times. It said it provides this information on many of its helplines, but the information is limited to the average call waiting time from the previous day rather than a current waiting time. HMRC explained this was another …
Government response. HMRC will procure a new Contact Service platform in Spring 2025 to be in place in 2026-27, that gives customers an indication of likely wait time and call back options.
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
HMRC has been working to become a ‘digital-first’ organisation since 2010 and hopes to replace traditional forms of contact with digital services.13 It said its research shows that 86% of customers say they are willing to deal with HMRC digitally or would prefer to do so.14 Despite this, HMRC still …
Government response. The government agreed with the committee's recommendation to consider HMRC's resourcing as part of the Spending Review to further digitise customer services and enable more customers to self-serve online, and will publish a Transformation Roadmap in 2025 outlining plans to …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
In May 2024, HMRC received £51 million additional funding, to cover approximately 1,500 staff for 2024–25, to bring its customer service to target levels for answering 85% of customers’ attempts to speak to an adviser on the telephone and for handling 80% of correspondence within 15 working days.19 It said …
Government response. The government agreed with the committee's recommendation to consider HMRC's resourcing as part of the Spending Review to further digitise customer services and enable more customers to self-serve online, and will publish a Transformation Roadmap in 2025 outlining plans to …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
HMRC said that approximately 70% of interactions with it are digital.21 Since 2015, it has introduced several digital services, including Personal and Business Tax Accounts, an app, and its flagship Making Tax Digital programme for VAT.22 In 2022–23, customers accessed online Personal and Business Tax Accounts and the HMRC app …
Government response. The government agreed with the committee's recommendation to consider HMRC's resourcing as part of the Spending Review to further digitise customer services and enable more customers to self-serve online, and will publish a Transformation Roadmap in 2025 outlining plans to …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
HMRC estimates that the tax gap–the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid to HMRC, and what was actually paid–increased from £38.1 billion in 2021–22 to £39.8 billion in 2022–23 (the latest year for which HMRC has made an estimate). As a proportion of tax due, it …
Government response. HMRC will set stretching annual compliance yield targets with Ministers, including the expected £6.5 billion in 2029-30 from measures announced at Autumn Budget 2024.
HM Treasury
20
Recommendation
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
HMRC was unable to say what impact the additional revenues it expects to bring in would have on the tax gap. It said it is not practical to set a target for the tax gap as it is measured more than a year after the end of the tax year …
Government response. HMRC will set stretching annual compliance yield targets with Ministers, including expected additional tax revenue from measures announced at Autumn Budget 2024, estimated to generate £6.5 billion in 2029-30.
HM Treasury
22
Recommendation
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and…
Accepted
In 2023–24 there were 344 criminal prosecutions, compared with 691 in 2019–20, before the pandemic.64 HMRC said it is very successful in its criminal investigations and has a high conviction rate in its prosecutions, but that it tends to reserve their use for the most serious and higher- value cases …
Government response. HMRC will increase counter-fraud capability and expand work to address fraud, publishing an updated Issue Brief articulating its ambitions and areas of likely focus, and considering the associated uplift in positive charging decisions.
HM Treasury