It’s feeling a lot like déjà vu at present when you come to talk about HMRC service levels. Yes, we have been here before. Back in 2015 we were having broadly the same conversation. HMRC was showing serious cracks, under fire over its failure to answer the phone and deal with post on time, after 10 years of shedding two fifths of its workforce. Braced for further problems after austerity spending cuts and with a large-scale reorganisation on the horizon.

 HMRC said at the time it believed it could tackle the root cause of the problems by investing heavily in digital technology.