Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and Accounts
Published 22 Jan 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee HMRC Customer Service and Accounts 2023-24 All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
HMRC said it uses email sparingly due to security concerns.42 Several organisations representing taxpayers and their agents wrote to us to highlight the need for a secure digital way to share files and correspondence with HMRC so that communication by post and phone became the exception.43 HMRC acknowledged that it is clearly behind many other 31 Customer service, paras 17, 3.7 32 Q 92 33 Report on 2023–24 Accounts, para 9 34 Q 81 35 Q 82 36 Q 92 37 Customer service, Figure 1 38 Customer service, para 2.28 39 Customer service, para 1.5 40 Report on 2023–24 Accounts, Figure 6 41 Customer service, para 1.14 42 Q 78 43 HCSA0003 Written evidence submitted by Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; HCSA0005 Written evidence submitted by Association of Taxation Technicians 11 organisations in providing this facility.44 It said it has been exploring ways to digitise its postal services and liaising with other government bodies through the Central Digital and Data Office in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Government Digital Service.45 It said it envisages customers using the HMRC App and the Personal Tax Account for more secure messaging, and is seeking investment for this development as part of its ‘digital roadmap’.46 44 Q 79 45 Q 80 46 Qq 78-79 12 3 Collecting more revenue Managing tax debt
From: Public Accounts Committee, 3rd Report - HMRC Customer Service and Accounts (HC 347), 22 January 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Third Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Third report from Session 2024-25
Published 6 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees with most of the Committee's recommendations, with target implementation dates ranging from March 2026 to March 2028 for several, but disagrees with reinstating a call waiting time target and with the proposed resourcing "guard rails" and corrective trigger.
- On a call waiting time target, the government "disagrees". It says ASA "remains a key performance metric" and that its Adviser Attempts Handled measure and customer satisfaction metrics give "a more rounded view" of the experience for all callers.
- The government agrees that call waiting estimates, no cut-offs without warning and a callback service should be required in a new telephone service, with a target implementation date of March 2027. It says the new Contact Service platform procurement will launch in spring 2025.
- The government disagrees with setting a trigger when service levels fall more than five percentage points below target. It says HMRC is "always reviewing plans and forecasts of demand" and adjusting resourcing "day-by-day and week-by-week".
- On tax debt, the government agrees, and HMRC "will respond to the Committee in September 2025" with its expectations for the debt balance by 2029-30 and plans for older debts, allowing for the outcome of Spending Review Phase 2.