SW04220 - HMRC Business Authorising Officer: Reviewing the Activity Inbox

HMRC Business Authorising Officers (BAOs) of a Room have collective responsibility for the effective management of the BAO Activity Inbox.

It is essential that meaningful and effective checks are made of each request to avoid compromising the security of Shared Workspace.

If the BAO has any doubts they must reject the request.

Checks

New Member Requests

The following checks must be carried out as a minimum

  1. The BAO must visually check each entry and consider

    1. Is the Member’s name appropriate?

For instance, the name “Fred Bloggs” is unlikely. All unlikely or suspicious names must be checked, tactfully, for authenticity.

    1. For a Customer Member, is the Customer Organisation email address a business address?

If the address is not in line with other organisation email addresses, is for a different organisation, or for a general email account such as “Hotmail”, the BAO must check with the Customer Nominated Contact (CNC) that the address given is a genuine business address for the Customer Member.

    1. CNC Name

Is the CNC responsible for the Customer Organisation shown in the new Role?

A CNC is presented with a list of roles for their Room. They may accidentally select the wrong Role, for instance, simply by selecting a line above or below their intended choice. The BAO must not approve the request unless satisfied the CNC is responsible for the new role requested.

    1. CNC Email Address

By selecting the envelope icon alongside the ‘requestor’ name check that their email address is in line with the organisation they represent. This is also a good indication that they are associated with the new role requested for the Customer Member. If the BAO has any doubts they must not approve the request until they have contacted the CNC to clarify matters and from which to make an informed decision.

    1. What is the Role?

Is the new role appropriate to the Customer Organisation of the CNC?

If the new role is not clearly for the CNC’s organisation, such as for a different organisation, the BAO must reject the request.

  1. If the request is to Add an HMRC Member to a Room SW04225, the BAO must be satisfied that the member has a valid business need to be part of that Room.

If the BAO has any doubts they must verify the request with the Line Manager before approval.

  1. Requests from an HMRC Member to change their role to BAO SW04240 must be considered very carefully.

The BAO must be satisfied that the HMRC Member meets with the guidelines on Appointing an HMRC Business Authorising Officer SW05220 before approving the request.

The BAO reviewing the request must check that the HMRC Member has successfully undertaken the HMRC BAO Learning Package SW02220 before approving the request.

  1. For requests to Delete a Room Item SW04250, the BAO must consider whether or not the reason given is valid. If necessary the BAO must query the reason before approving the request.

Good Practice Tip

BAOs should handle requests made by HMRC Members they know. This will minimise the number of rejected requests which in turn will reduce the number of requests that have to be resubmitted