PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

453WH
HMRC Closures
26 MARCH 2013
HMRC Closures
454WH
I acknowledge that there appears to have been some
recent improvement in HMRC’s handling of post, but I
would be grateful if the Minister could clarify the
current position on its call-handling performance. According
to the answer to a parliamentary question I received
from the Minister only last month, the percentage of
calls not handled—in other words, unanswered—by
HMRC had gone up from 25.6% last year to 28.6% in
this financial year to date. Given that we are now only
days away from the end of the financial year, will the
Minister confirm whether that fall in performance has
continued, and if it has, what specific measures has he
put in place to ensure that it does not fall further?
That point is, of course, pertinent to this debate, not
only because of the concerns raised by the hon. Member
for Isle of Wight, but given the recent words of the
Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, my right hon.
Friend the Member for Barking (Margaret Hodge):
“Just how the department is going to improve standards of
customer service, given the prospect of its having fewer staff and
receiving a higher volume of calls, is open to question. HMRC
plans to cut the number of customer-facing staff by a third by
2015. At the same time, the stresses associated with introducing
the Real Time Information System, Universal Credit and changes
to child benefit are likely to drive up the number of phone calls to
the department…Since our hearing it has also been announced
that HMRC is to close all of its 281 enquiry centres which give
face-to-face advice to customers. This will undoubtedly put even
more pressure on phone lines.”
That is also relevant because HMRC’s consultation
document appears to suggest that anyone who requires
a face-to-face appointment with HMRC staff under the
new system can obtain one only once they have spoken
to at least two helpline advisers— and then a face-to-face
appointment will be offered at the discretion of HMRC
staff.
2.58 pm
Sitting suspended for a Division in the House.
3.10 pm
On resuming—
Catherine McKinnell: I would welcome a guarantee
from the Minister today that HMRC will significantly
increase its call handling and customer service performance
—perhaps beyond the relatively low targets it sets for
itself—before the new service is introduced.
Of course, the proposals that we are discussing today
are simply out for consultation. Indeed, HMRC itself
has stated:
“No final decision will be made until we have consulted on and
piloted the new service, and fully assessed the findings of the
consultation and the pilot.”
It has also said:
“We plan to close our Enquiry Centres as the new service is
introduced in 2014. This is subject to our making a formal
assessment of how the closures affect our customers, the local
communities they serve and our staff—as well as to the outcome
of a pilot of the new service in the North East of England.”
However, I question the extremely tight time scales and
the nature of the process. HMRC’s consultation ends
on 24 May, yet it proposes to introduce the pilot in my
region, thereby closing the existing inquiry centres, on
3 June—five working days later. It would be a genuinely
impressive improvement in HMRC’s response times if it
were able to process and adequately respond to all the
consultation submissions it receives in such a short
period. What will happen to the inquiry centres in the
north-east if the pilot does not turn out to be a success?
Will they re-open? Indeed, what measures will HMRC
use to determine whether the north-east trial delivers
what is intended? We often hear that Government pilots
are “doomed to succeed” and I very much suspect that
that is the case in the present instance. Does the Minister
share my concern that HMRC staff have apparently
already been told that it is “highly likely” that all 281
centres will close before the outcomes of either the
consultation or the pilot are even known?
I understand the rationale behind HMRC’s proposals,
based as they are on the decline in the number of people
using inquiry centres over recent years from more than
5 million in 2005-06 to around 2.5 million in 2011-12.
HMRC also states that it has conducted detailed research,
which
“confirms that inquiry centres no longer meet the needs of our
customers”.
Will the Minister address the concerns of the PCS
union that that research was flawed? Did those conducting
research on behalf of HMRC really not give people the
option of selecting “speaking to someone in person”,
when asking whether customers would prefer to deal
with the department “by phone, post or online”?
It is not only PCS that is raising concerns about the
proposals. The director of tax at Berg Kaprow Lewis,
David Whiscombe, has said:
“No doubt many taxpayers would be happy to deal with
HMRC online or via call centres if either were reliably available.
But there is a swathe of taxpayers who are uncomfortable with
these methods including numbers of the elderly, less literate or
less articulate sections of the population for whom face-to-face
contact delivers the only sensible option.
For HMRC to disregard them is arrogant, insensitive and, dare
I say it just plain stupid”.
Jane Moore, tax faculty technical manager at ICAEW,
commented:
“I’m disappointed because I think a lot of people could still
make use of the Enquiry Centres. For the last few years I don’t
think the Revenue has done enough to publicise them or provide a
comprehensive service.”
Those are worrying concerns being expressed by experts
in the field.
Finally, I would like to mention an important concern
in addition to those that I have raised already, and those
raised by the hon. Member for Isle of Wight. It was
briefly addressed when the hon. Member for Ceredigion
(Mr Williams) raised it. HMRC states that it will be able
to provide its new tailored service to those customers
who need most support in a number of venues, including
local libraries and community centres. However, as I
have said, hundreds of libraries, community centres and
other local facilities are either closed or facing closure
as a result of the cuts that the Government have dished
out to local government funding.
Those cuts are being targeted at areas such as northern
cities, and many of the London boroughs with the
highest needs. In such places there are likely to be more
of the type of people for whom HMRC states it wants
to provide a better service. What discussions is the
Minister having with his colleagues in the Department
for Communities and Local Government about the
impact of their funding decisions on the venues from