Recommendation 17

COVID-19, and HMRC’s role in the government’s response, has had a significant impact on the Department’s operations. Most of HMRC’s staff are working from home and it has reallocated many of them to support the COVID-19 measures. HMRC told us that customer service performance levels suffered as soon as it had to divert resources to deal with the implications of COVID-19.45 At the peak, in May 2020, 9,097 staff (16% of its total workforce of 58,592) were reallocated to COVID-19-related roles.46 When we asked HMRC why it had struggled to provide a good level of customer service even before the 39 Qq 66–68, 71 40 Q68 41 Letter dated 3 December from HMRC Permanent Secretary to Chair 42 Q 70–71 43 Q73 44 Letter dated 3 December from HMRC Permanent Secretary to Chair; Further detail on Places for Growth can be found on the Office of Government Property website available at: www.gov.uk/government/groups/office-of- government-property-ogp 45 Qq 20, 52–53; C&AG’s Report, para 13 46 Q 53; C&AG’s Report, para 2.22 14 HMRC performance 2019–20 emergence of COVID-19, the Department told us about problems in its recruitment in the first half of 2019–20, which meant headcount was approximately 8% below where it should have been.47