Fed up of waiting for a reply? Not satisfied with the service you got? Will making a complaint solve your problem? It might do, IF your complaint is about something that can be fixed. But, the more punters complain, the more it takes people away from their day-to-day work.  It might be that complaints are over-rated. Punters who get their problems fixed by complaining are more likely to recommend it as a solution. But, from what I remember, for every complaint where there was a problem that could be solved, there was another where the only answer was that HRMC had done everything right. You may not like the way it was done, but if it was done within the rules, that was the end of it. (Hand on heart, when I worked for Large Business , I don't recall any complaints. Maybe I was lucky, or maybe it was because each business had a Customer Relationship Manager they could ring up to talk things over with. Maybe that sounds unfair.  Maybe the man in the street could do with having so...

  As I've said before - one of the things I liked about working for HM Customs and Excise was that it wasn't like being a boring civil servant. Even after the merger with the Inland Revenue to form HM Revenue and Customs - and despite the "One Civil Service" programme - there was still enough DIVERSITY in the job to make it fun. One example could be found in section 63 (1) of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (and here, I have to admit that I didn't discover it myself, it was pointed out by retired Preventive Officer Ray Gregory in the Customs and Excise History Network newsletter no 31 in Spring 2012). This is the section which tells the ship's master to deliver an outward entry before any export goods are loaded - "other than goods for exportation loaded in accordance with a stiffening order issued by the proper officer.." Isn't that grand? A stiffening order . As far as I can tell that means an order to strengthen the hull of a vess...

  When HMRC announced a new IT system would be rolled out later than expected, it got the usual catcalls. It will take until 31 March 2023 for HMRC’s Customs Declaration Service to completely replace CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import Export Freight) as the UK’s  customs platform. But for once, I’ve got to say hats off HMRC.  When they started to replace CHIEF we were still part of Europe. Once Brexit was declared, they had to amend the Customs Declaration Service to take Brexit into account, even though the Government couldn’t make up its mind if, when and how we were leaving Europe. The fact that we’re only talking about late completion of CDS, when bits of it are already in place is a miracle. Just don’t expect the cost increase to be written on the side of a bus. In the past HMRC software projects had a pretty good reputation. When King and Crewe covered Information Technology in ‘The Blunders of Our Government’ (2013) they admitted that not all government IT schemes h...