HMRC Executive Committee: Agenda and summary - 6 May 2008 1.25 pm Room G/57 100 Parliament Street

Attendees

Dave Hartnett - Acting Chairman
Mike Eland - Director General Enforcement and Compliance
Melanie Dawes - Acting Director General Business Tax
Mike Hanson – Director General Benefits and Credits
Anthony Inglese - General Counsel and Solicitor
Bernadette Kenny - Director General Personal Tax
Steve Lamey – Chief Operating Officer
Philip Moore – Chief Finance Officer
Deepak Singh - Acting Chief Information Officer
Robin Roberts – Chief People Officer

Secretariat

Sara Woollard – Chairman’s Private Secretary
David McLean – Secretariat
Paul Phillips - Secretariat

Apologies

David Hogg – Director General Governance and Security

Also attending

Simon MacDowall, Mary Aiston, Linda McKendrick, Pat Duckworth, Paul King, Simon Hopkins, Ann Marie Earwaker (shadowing Dave Hartnett)

1 Matters arising

The minutes of 1 April were amended and agreed.

2 Grievances Review

The Chief People Officer led a discussion on the Grievances Review. The targets of the review are to halve the number of grievances and to halve the time the grievance procedure takes. HR is developing new streamlined procedures that have the backing of the unions. The test of the new system will be that there are fewer grievances overall, but more successful ones, which will show that only genuine grievances are going forward.

3 Statement of Internal Control

The committee discussed the draft Statement of Internal Control and agreed a number of disclosures. The committee asked for draft wording on several other issues to consider whether they should be included.

4 ESS

Historically, HMCE centralised Estates services while IR devolved them. This led to differing customer expectations in HMRC. Feedback has been that processes are not customer friendly. It is important the ESS structure is right and work on this has been brought forward by three months. The committee discussed allocation of funds for the procurement of minor items and agreed that the Lines of Business could authorise spend on such items within an overarching HMRC framework.

5 The planning process

The new planning framework is designed to fit with the Revised Operating Model. The Finance Business Partners community are enthused by the process. It was recognised that this was a work in progress and would require cultural and behavioural shifts. However it the department got the strategy right it would be a huge step forward. ExCom asked for regular progress reports.

The next meeting of the Executive Committee will be on 20 May 2008 in Room G57 100 Parliament Street.

Executive Committee Secretariat