CASE STUDY - HMRC DEBT TRANSFORMATION
HM Revenue and Customs’ debt transformation programme is one of the many (65) amber-rated projects. The five-year programme, which HMRC’s deputy director for debt transformation James Buckley describes as a “complex piece of IT change”, involves moving from legacy IT to a new debt-management system with the aim of creating a better user experience.
This will include making the system more adaptable and responsive to the changing needs of the officials who run the service and members of the public who use it to help manage their debt.
The IPA rated the project amber due to concerns over funding, supplier capacity and capability.
Buckley, who is the programme’s delivery director, says the funding issue has been
“fully resolved”, with the programme granted the full allocation it requested at the 2021 Spending Review, while supplier capacity and capability have been addressed and continue to be worked on.
“Improving how we deliver with our partners isn’t a static thing. It’s something we constantly review and improve,” he says.
“And we make continuous improvements to the delivery model. Our main supplier has a dedicated team working to the programme on a continuous basis. And we’ve made improvements in how we engage and work with and design what we’re building as part of a multifunctional team, where we take expertise from across HMRC and from our external suppliers and we all work together as one team in order to meet our objectives.”
A basic version of the new system has now been built, Buckley said, with the department’s work now focused on scaling that up and expanding it.
Asked if he expects the programme to move to green next year, Buckley says: “I would certainly be more confident of that. It’s a large programme and what we’re doing is a complex piece of IT change. So there will always be some complexities. But certainly, in terms of those recommendations and those challenges from the review that we had in the new year, we have definitely met them.”
The programme is also an example of a project that only joined the portfolio last year.
Buckley says the scheme joined the portfolio after the department had developed its business case, which gave it a better idea of how much funding it would need and brought the project into “the purview of the IPA as a major project”.
Buckley says the relationship with the IPA has been “really constructive” and “on point”. He adds that gated reviews have provided “what I would expect to see from an IPA review, which is a constructive and honest challenge with the right intentions to help us identify areas where we can improve”.