Corporate report

About this report

Published 31 January 2019

About this report

This report contains equality information required by regulation 2 of the Equality Act Specific Duty Regulations (SI 2011/2260). It shows how the department complies with the public sector equality duty in section 149 of the Equality Act 2010 in relation to its diversity and inclusion, customer, and policy administration activities.

It covers the period 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018 for customer service and policy administration and HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) diversity and inclusion data.

Part 1 of the report covers customer service and policy activities.

Previous editions may be found under HMRC’s corporate reports on GOV.UK.

Equality regulations

The equality regulations require all public bodies to:

• eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• advance equality of opportunity
• foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who don’t

Promoting equality of opportunity means public bodies have to:

• remove or minimise disadvantages for groups of people
• take steps to meet the needs of protected groups of people
• encourage all groups of people to participate in public life or other activity in situations where their participation is low

Background

Our vital purpose

We are the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority: we collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support.

Our vision

Our vision is to be a world class organisation.

To achieve our vital purpose in a changing world, we are transforming and modernising the way we work – putting customers at the heart of everything we do.

We’re proud of this ambition, and the values that underpin it.

Our values

We are professional: we are confident and expert in running HMRC, striving for clarity, consistency and excellence in our work, partnering with others and collaborating across teams to achieve great results, and enjoying what we do, proud to serve our customers and society.

We act with integrity: with high ethical standards, we are honest, fair, and even-handed in our treatment of others, exercising judgment and discretion, and holding ourselves to account for our actions.

We show respect: empowering and trusting our colleagues and customers to do the right thing, we are friendly, courteous, inclusive and considerate, and recognising, valuing and celebrating the views, qualities and achievements of others.

And we are innovative: we champion new and different ways of working to adapt and move with the times, having the courage and tenacity to challenge how things are done, committed to continuous improvement and to developing ourselves.

Our objectives

Our key objectives set by the government, and outlined in our single departmental plan are to:

• maximise revenues due and bear down on avoidance and evasion
• transform tax and payments for our customers
• design and deliver a professional, efficient and engaged organisation

We also set out HMRC’s equality objectives in the single departmental plan, which are to:

• further develop our understanding about the impact of our services on customers and identify more clearly those who need enhanced support
• provide digital services that are accessible and usable by the widest possible range of customers
• ensure that our public sector duty is reflected in appropriate HMRC policies, processes, projects and training
• create and maintain a diverse workforce that better reflects HMRC’s customer base
• create a working environment that values difference and fosters an inclusive workplace culture where HMRC employees from all backgrounds, can give their best, are treated fairly, valued for their contributions, and where they can progress their careers

Our achievements

Our key achievements in 2017 to 2018, which reflect our commitment to customer service, while meeting departmental strategic objectives, include:

• £605.8 billion record total tax revenues brought in – £30.9 billion more than last year
• 15 million customers using Personal Tax Accounts to manage their tax affairs online
• more than one million tax credits customers renewed online using our digital service
• 46.7 million calls received – exceeding our 5 minute target for average speed of answer
• more than 110,000 customers were supported through our Needs Enhanced Services (NES)
• 96.6% of all customs checks cleared within 2 hours, against our target of 95%
• 80.7% customer post turned around within 15 days
• £229 million efficiency savings we made for the UK taxpayer
• £26.2 billion in tax credits and £11.7 billion in Child Benefit paid out
• £30.3 billion compliance yield generated against our target of £28 billion, an increase of £1.4 billion from 2016 to 2017
• 4,301 full-time equivalent employees recruited
• 2,202 apprentices in HMRC, accounting for 3.3% of our workforce.

A skilled and sustainable workforce

At the end of 2017 to 2018, HMRC had 59,332 full-time equivalent employees, 2,000 fewer than the previous year.

We want to make HMRC a great place to work, where everyone knows they are valued and will be treated fairly, regardless of background, working pattern or who they know. Our staff engagement score for 2017 to 2018 was 50% – a significant improvement – but we know we have more to do to increase this further.

An important part of this is creating a greater range of career opportunities – we had 22 professions within HMRC last year, including tax, policy, operational delivery, project and programme management, IT, finance and analysis, and we promoted more than 4,000 people this year.

We are also investing in the skills our people need to deliver for our customers. Every single HMRC employee gets a full 5 days of funded training and development every year, pro rata for part-time colleagues.

Please see HMRC’s annual report for more details of our achievements in 2017 to 2018.