Employment and Payroll Group
The Employment and Payroll Group is HMRC’s principal forum for HMRC, and other government departments, to engage with the employment and payroll community.
The Employment and Payroll Group focuses on high-level operational policy and process issues. It provides a forum through which members can raise and discuss issues or problems in administering payroll obligations or in relation to employment tax issues more generally.
The Employment and Payroll Group replaced the Employment Consultation Forum in December 2014. It also incorporates the Payroll Consultation Panel and the Benefits and Expenses Sub-group.
Membership
| Members |
|---|
| Armstrong Watson |
| Association of Accounting Technicians |
| Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants |
| Association of Taxation Technicians |
| Black Mountain |
| Business Application Software Developers Association |
| British Computer Society |
| Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals |
| Chartered Institute of Taxation |
| Community Accounting Plus |
| Confederation of British Industry |
| Employment Tax Industry Forum |
| Federation of Small Businesses |
| Hydrock |
| Institute of Accountants and Bookkeepers |
| Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales |
| Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland |
| National Farmers Union |
| Payroll Bureaux (Large) |
| Payroll Bureaux (Small) |
| Payroll Centre |
| Private Sector Payroll Group |
Sub-groups
Terms of reference
Name of the group
The name of the group will be the Employment and Payroll Group.
Purpose and responsibilities
The group will be HMRC’s principal consultation forum for employers and their intermediaries, and will focus primarily on high level operational policy and process issues.
The group will be an effective forum for HMRC to explain and explore implications of potential changes to policies, products and processes impacting on employers and intermediaries and provide an opportunity for early review of guidance and information to make sure processes are clearly explained so that customers understand what is required of them.
The group will also provide a forum through which members can raise and discuss issues or problems in administering payroll obligations or in relation to employment tax issues more generally. These issues should affect either a wide range of employers or can be specific to a size or sector.
Chairmanship/membership
A senior official from HMRC and an external representative will jointly co-chair the group. The co-chair should be impartial and able to represent the interests of a wide group of stakeholders including payroll agents, software developers and employers and have experience at a strategic as well as operational level.
The co-chair will work with HMRC and members on developing agendas and addressing important issues in between meetings. The co-chair will also assist in evaluating whether the forum is successfully meeting its aims, as set out in the Terms of Reference. The group will be made up of nominees of employers’ and intermediaries’ representative organisations and some employers and payroll agents.
There will be a rule of one member per organisation represented. Organisations may nominate a deputy to attend when standing members are unable to do so. Consideration will be given to organisations nominating a specialist to attend when an agenda item requires specific expertise.
Other government departments will be invited to attend when their potential changes to products and processes are identified as having an impact on employers’ payroll operations.
Accountability
Meetings should be constructive and open. It will be made clear when items to be discussed are confidential and not for wider discussion.
Members will be expected to feed information and minutes through to their organisation for onward cascade.
Working methods
Agenda items will be compiled by the secretary of the group from suggestions by both internal HMRC and external representatives. AOB items should normally be suggested a week in advance of each meeting.
Meetings
Meetings will feature a mix of presentations from HMRC representatives and discussions between HMRC staff and members.
The group will normally meet on a quarterly basis, but where appropriate will discuss and decide on issues by email between formal meetings. Exceptionally additional meetings may be called at short notice to discuss matters of urgency.
Ad-hoc and time limited sub-groups to address specific topics and issues will be set up and disbanded as considered necessary by the group.
The minutes, terms of reference, and a list of representatives and the organisations they represent will be published online.
The secretary of the group will liaise with secretaries of other consultation forums to ensure issues are discussed in the most suitable forum, and thus to avoid duplication. Minutes from other forums and sub-groups will be shared meetings.
Action points will be recorded by the secretary, and representatives will be advised of progress by email between meetings.
Review
We will review and evaluate the forums every 6 to 12 months and refresh the terms of reference.
Minutes
Archived minutes
Minutes from previous years are available on The National Archives website:
- minutes from 2022 and 2023
- minutes from 2021
- minutes from 2020
- minutes from 2019
- minutes from 2018
- minutes from December 2014 to December 2017
Minutes from the Employment Consultation Forum, which this group replaced in December 2014, are also available.