Giving evidence to a session of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Lin Homer, HMRC CEO, said: ‘A phased approach allows us to takeover and do different element of the work whilst the other bits run as they have always done, which de-risks the process.’

 Mark Dearnley, HMRC’s chief digital and information officer, said: ‘Because of the phased approach, there will not be a big bang. There will be lots of little bangs, but hopefully some of them won’t even go bang. We have changed our minds and are going for a lean, interactive, agile process.’

PAC heard that the business case for replacing Aspire has been agreed via the HMRC, Cabinet Office and Treasury committees involved and was now awaiting sign off from the Chancellor.  The project is currently classed as ‘amber/red’ in terms of risk of problems.

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