As HMRC moves towards online delivery of all its services with the closure of walk-in tax offices, Telford is the latest site for a brand new HMRC national digital delivery centre, the tax department’s call centre and IT support operation which will provide helpline services to online customers, including tax advisers and individual taxpayers
The centre will employ 200 staff in Telford and brings the number of regional centres to four, adding to HMRC’s existing centres in Newcastle, Shipley and London.
As well as HMRC staff, outsourced contractor Capgemini will be based at the facility.
The move comes as HMRC commits to a new application programme interface (API) digital strategy to support software developers and improve the quality of tax compliance software to support the transition to complete online delivery of tax services.
Opening the centre, the financial secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, met some of the teams that will help deliver HMRC’s new digital services. Underlining the importance of the move to total online delivery, Gauke said: ‘We want to make tax easier to understand and simpler to engage with. That’s why we’re introducing digital tax accounts for tens of millions of taxpayers and investing in HMRC’s digital transformation.
‘The new digital centre established with Capgemini will help accelerate HMRC’s plans for new digital services and is helping secure jobs in Telford.’
Mark Dearnley, HMRC’s chief digital and information officer, said: ‘This demonstrates HMRC’s ongoing commitment to Telford as one of our specialist locations and a main site for the delivery of IT projects and services.
‘Our digital transformation is well underway. We are fundamentally changing our business and removing paper from every stage of our processes.’