The FDA is pleased to have provided the blueprint for the Chancellor’s announcement in today’s budget on tackling the tax gap, by investing in 5,000 additional HMRC compliance staff and providing the money to modernise the department’s technology. These announcements follow our Funding the Nation report from the FDA’s HMRC section – the Association of Revenue and Customs – which demonstrated how a new government could return £11.3bn by investing in compliance, customer services and improving technology. 

The union additionally raised concerns over already-stretched departments finding ongoing productivity targets.

FDA General Secretary Dave Penman said: 

“It is heartening to see our campaigning become government policy. This investment will improve HMRC’s productivity, improve our members’ working lives, and help provide the Treasury with the necessary funds to support our vital public services.

“However, the 2% productivity target over one financial year will be challenging for many departments, which are already struggling to deliver vital public services with stretched resources.

“There is only so much money that departments can find behind the sofa.

“Relying on ‘reform’ and ‘technology’ to increase productivity is convenient rhetoric but often falls over when faced with the reality of delivering public services. If the government is serious about further efficiencies in phase 2 of the spending review, it must clearly set out how it expects to deliver these or what it is going to stop doing.”