HMRC takes next step towards creating a digital future for taxpayers

5 Aug 2015 03:42 PM

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) recently announced that it will bring some existing IT services under its direct control, while it continues to plan the transition to a new IT delivery model following the ending of the Aspire contract in 2017.

These changes will ultimately enable HMRC to make savings of up to 24 per cent on its £800m annual IT budget by 2020-21 while maintaining consistent delivery of services to customers.

Mark Dearnley, HMRC’s Chief Digital and Information Officer, said recently:

We have an ambitious digital vision – to transform our IT services and use the data we hold in smarter ways, so we can deliver world-beating digital services for our customers and colleagues.

The changes we’re announcing today will allow us to maintain consistency of service for customers while we plan for the future which, as now, will include a mixed model of both internal and external delivery using multiple partners.

HMRC also announced that Capgemini would be providing ‘test and release’ services until 2020, to provide vital quality assurance during the digital transformation.

HMRC has already launched exciting and innovative online services that are quicker, lower cost and have tax compliance and security built-in. New Personal and Business Tax Accounts – which work like online bank accounts, allowing customers to deal with all their tax affairs in one place – will be available to ten million personal customers and five million businesses respectively by early 2016.

The UK tax authority has a network of Delivery Centres – hi-tech innovation hubs, based across the UK – which developed an online tax credit renewals service used this year by more than 750,000 customers, with customer satisfaction rates reaching 90 per cent.

Notes for editors

  1. Follow HMRC’s press office on Twitter @HMRCpressoffice
  2. HMRC’s Flickr channel: www.flickr.com/hmrcgovuk
  3. The three services and the 250 staff working on them being transferred from Capgemini are:
    • Case Management, which offers a single, unified platform for handling compliance cases.
    • Customs and International (Excite), which provides a wide range of services including managing the movement of duty-suspended goods and exchanging claims for VAT refunds between EU member state tax authorities.
    • Third-party supplier contracts, which means HMRC will take direct ownership of contracts with third-party suppliers for a range of IT hardware, software, services and consumables.