April 2024 marks ten years since HM Revenue and Customs breathlessly introduced their “national conversation” called “Building our Future.” Unveiled by chief executive Linda Homer, the one-sided conversation outlined the future shape of HMRC. Government had set priorities to maximise tax revenue, improve services and reduce costs. “We are going to put customers at the heart of everything we do. That means redesigning our processes around them, rather than the taxes they pay or benefits they receive.” Digitisation would automate many processes, cutting the need for some roles. ”We will continue to reduce in size and become even more highly skilled, and we will further consolidate into a small number of very large workplaces or Regional Centres.” “We think it’s an exciting future, but we know it won’t be for everyone.” It was followed up in November 2014 by “Building our Future 2: Continuing the Conversation.”  This led off with some finger-wagging from Linda Homer. “We’ve pic...

  I've been reading through the Institute for Government's new report on Finding The Right Skills for the Civil Service and had a few random thoughts.  The report has a "ripped from the headlines" recommendation about "porosity" (expertise moving between the Civil Service and the Private Sector). It says ACOBA is the gatekeeper that limits ‘revolving door’ abuse of government insider knowledge "(but)...there are.no firm sanctions for those who break the rules, and those who follow them are unlikely to be the people behaving improperly. " So,"...the system needs a thorough overhaul." As I said here , it's clear the problem lies on the top shelf of the oven, and I hope any remedies don't end up dripping down to the bottom levels. As far as the findings on skills goes, I still felt a bit of residual pride that HMRC is identified as a bit of a leader here with a large number of civil servants who are members of a profession that in...