ARC gives evidence to Commons committee

ARC - the Association of Revenue and Customs - has called for HM Revenue and Customs to move away from a "command and control" structure to "release" staff to work more effectively.

Giving evidence to the Commons Treasury Sub Committee in mid-January, ARC President Graham Black said: "Every organisation goes through periods where they have to rationalise and take some cuts, but we have had ten years of nothing but cuts.

"Most organisations when they cut back, they centralise. [They] become command and control. My fear is that we have forgotten how to get away from command and control. We have to be able to release our staff. We have to be able to free them up to do the job that they want to be able to do."

Black told the committee that HMRC had lost over a third of staff - from 99,000 people when Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise merged in 2005, to the 67,000 staff currently.

Terry Cook, ARC ex-President, also gave evidence to the MPs. He said: "The Poynter review of data security talked about staff being weary of change... I think people are just weary of seeing change taking place against a background of cuts, cuts, cuts."

He went on to say that cutting training and development budgets was only a short-term gain. "I think we are now beginning to appreciate that we need to train the staff we have; that we need to carry on recruiting graduates and other people; and to train our own tax people. That is not to say we cannot buy in expertise, but we very much believe the emphasis should be on developing our own people."

Watch ARC's evidence to the Treasury Sub Committee 

ARC President Graham Black