The HMRC Charter annual report admitted that overall service standards were well below expectations as a result of long delays with telephone answering times, exacerbated by increasingly complex enquiries as taxpayers’ tax affairs became ‘more complicated’.

Another major problem was how to deal with budget cuts as HMRC looked for further efficiencies to reduce costs. This has resulted in the decision to focus on digital services, with the intention to migrate the majority of taxpayer enquiries to online only services, reducing use of telephone lines, which is barely mentioned in the annual report.