I recently had a week of important quarterly meetings with agent representatives. It can be a logistical challenge to get all the papers and presenters in the same room at the same time. So we group the meetings because some of our agent rep visitors have far to travel and it’s a help to them to cover several subjects with HMRC in one trip. The face-to-face exchange of views really improves understanding and trust.
The minutes of the Compliance Reform Forum and the Agent Engagement Group are published, so we’ll say more about these when we can link you to the latest minutes. The third meeting of the week was the Joint Initiative Steering Group. This initiative between agents and HMRC resulted from Treasury Select Committee recommendations for more joint working in autumn 2011. It focuses on service delivery improvements – removing grit from systems – and performance indicators to improve transparency of our performance and to act as a catalyst for continuous improvement.
Agents get very involved. We visit their offices to see an agent’s point of view. They visit us to see the processes in action. This very simple approach generates new ideas and insights. Here's the October 2013 joint statement update on progress (PDF document): there are some break-through improvements in issues that bug agents.
Have you read any of the minutes of our joint meetings? How helpful are they?
1 comment
Comment by Tina Riches posted on
Since people have a paucity of time these days...
Some of the minutes can seem long and wordy. How about a shorter format that focuses on the decisions and actions?
You mention 'break-through improvements' above. Maybe you could explain some of those in a future blog.