Friday 5 August 2016

Equality and Diversity


Jon Thompson, HMRC chief executive and permanent secretary, is worried about diversity within HMRC.

A Freedom of Information request by economia in 2014 showed that 6% of HMRC staff came from a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) background, compared to a national workforce average of 10%.

Thompson, some two years after that request, is quoted as saying:
"We should be recruiting from all sections of society, not just people who’ve done the ‘right’ degree at the ‘right’ university.” 
HMRC claims that its new programme will help it better reflect its "customer" base. It will review recruitment and selection practices to attract and appoint from a diverse applicant pool. It also says it will improve its diversity data and declarations across all lines of business.

It has also made clear that it wants to improve its approach towards customer equality, including providing assisted digital avenues and appropriate provision for the digitally excluded.

Will "customer equality" also extend to HMRC treating individual taxpayers and SME's in the same way as HMRC treats large companies such as Vodafone?

No, I thought not!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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25 comments:

  1. No one will speak for the sheeple, a flocking disgrace, yes I know. not the best way to ram home a message but do ewe really care? Chop, chop!

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  2. Its about time HMRC treated people, taxpayers and their own staff, with a little respect. Jon Thompson does not care about the brutal bullying culture within HMRC, so how can we believe he cares about Equality and Diversity?

    There are serious issues within the shambolic HMRC:-
    1. Resources not being deployed in an effective way to the detriment of taxpayers.
    2. Lack of respect for taxpayers.
    3. Unfair treatment of small business while allowing multinationals to get away without paying their subs.
    4. Lack of respect for Equality & Diversity
    5. Inability of management and HR to be honest and act with integrity.
    6. A bullying culture which HMRC allows taxpayer funded resources to cover-up and so the disturbed managers engaged in such misconduct are never brought to justice and move on to their next target.

    Less talk and a hell of a lot more action is needed from the unimpressive Jon Thompson to start justifying his huge pay packet.

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  3. Unless and until a fully independant inquiry bereft of any shackles is carried out the legion of systemic civil and criminal lawbreaking will continue unabashed.
    What is interesting, for those with the ability or interest, is to consider what effect managers operating in the Criminal Justice field might have upon the reliability of their action within it, be that as reviewer or asker of questions and decision makers?
    If a senior manager can be referred to by a high court judge as "unreliable witness" wtf is going on in there?
    They even breached the surveillance regs concerning one of their own solicitors.
    Both the preceeding are matters of public record i.e. established facts.

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    Replies
    1. The bullying of their own solicitor is a disgrace to HMRC and the standards to which the majority of decent people expect. My guess is that no lessons have been learned and will not unless or until such time as the type of inquiry to which you suggest is launched.

      Delete
  4. Lin Homer, under whose watch, the bullying of the solicitor occurred, was awarded a knighthood. It brings the Honours system into disrepute - shameful.

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  5. Here's a figure (which I know to be true )the 6% of BAME staff in Hmrc are responsible for 78% of internal fraud in HMRC.....

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    Replies
    1. That's a very serious allegation, do you have evidence for this?

      Delete
    2. What a toxic Pandora's Box 5/8 @21:20 has opened...
      Are HMRC ethnically monitoring, fraud or otherwise?
      Does anybody bother with the HMIC reports that cover HMRC Internal Fraud?
      If 6% of any ethnicity were responsible for 78% of internal fraud should we be concerned?
      What are the fiscal figures associated with this allegation?
      Anyone go to prison?
      How slack are internal fraud controls in the Muppet Theatre?
      Pass the claret jug?
      Not forgetting the large bag of popcorn for this one!

      Delete
    3. Whoa...just hold on there a moment!
      Ethnicity monitoring has to be undertaken to ensure targets are met surely?
      But its not just about ethnic diversity is it, what about the LGBT or disabled communities, are they represented?
      Otherwise how would you know whether anyone other than a white, God fearing hetrosexual exists inside that madhouse?
      Mind you, the sheer panic that ran through the HMRC Law Enforcement management chain when they realised a few years ago that many staff had failed or omitted or whatever, to disclose criminal convictions w3as hilarious, it became akin to the night of the long knives, except I don't recall anyone getting the chop for some reason.

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    4. There needs to be great care before putting figures out there without any evidence for a serious allegation. On a separate issue what is a fact is that there is a bullying culture within HMRC and it is covered up by management and HR at the highest levels - a total misuse of public funds if ever there was one. To improve Equality & Diversity HMRC need to treat Everyone - whether the public or their own staff - with fairness, decency & respect; it really is simple and rather than keep coming out with fine words Thompson and others need to start to action about such an out of control culture.

      Delete
  6. 5/8 21.20 may have a personal agenda parasitic to these conversations. The professional term for someone who makes bold assersions on spurious evidence in order to cause trouble is 'wanker'

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    Replies
    1. Disagree entirely, I thought the professional term for someone who makes bold assersions on spurious evidence in order to cause trouble to be 'manager' (like wanker only different spelling).
      N.B. for wanker/manager refer to countersigning officer and/or Pacesetter droid, very little difference really!

      Delete
  7. Another talking head who will be gone in 2 years - i remember seeing a quota in Customs for promotion to SO for women and ethnic minorities when ironically i was on a course on equality , which i think in terms of positive discrimination is illegal ...anyhoo the culture of bullying staff will continue, backed up by a PMR system which allocates 50% to "behaviours " ie if we dont like you fuck off -Mr Thomsons qoute is laughable when the top of the civil service is rammed with Oxbridge wonks whilst middle management have basically left school with half a dozen crap GSE.The staff appear to put up with anything -crap IT, bullying at work , pay cuts , pension increases, office closures, the miraclous digital revolution as leases with tax avoiding Mapeleys expires -staff in major cities need to tell the organisation to shove it and walk..

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  8. Back shortly, just popping out for a jumbo bag of popcorn and a 6 pack...

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  9. '...It also says it will improve its diversity data and declarations across all lines of business'.

    How exactly? It's entirely down to staff whether or not they record personal details.

    Will it be a case of management filling in forms and supplying information against the wishes of staff?

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    Replies
    1. Quite right. I get sick and tired of requests to give my ethnicity and sexual preference when I don't see what that has to do with the price of chips.

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    2. Bit of advice to 8/8 23:12 - click on the option of 'choose not to declare', the PC bullies in senior management hate that. The same management who endorse and cover-up bullying do not need to collect this data. Until they understand that ALL PEOPLE, whoever they are, should be treated fairly and with respect, whatever business is it of theirs collecting politically correct data.

      Delete
  10. So, the BAME & LBGT minorities have been caterered for, what about those covered by the Equality Act, or Disability Discrimination Act as referred to PAC by Homer, even though the DDA had already been surpassed by the Equality Act.
    You could not make this stuff up!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Bullying is allowed in HMRC; the vast resources used to cover up it shows that, does it not. Its authorised by very senior staff who believe they are above the aforementioned legislation and that they have a perfect right to destroy anyone who stands up to their cowardly misconduct. The place is run in a very brutal and undemocratic way. They have no idea of how to make a productive contribution to anything but are masters in bullying.

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  12. Dear Ken and followers, it is interesting to note that HMNRC management bullying (otherwise known as 'robust management'), is being discussed more frequently.
    09:26 refers to it being covered up and authorised by very senior staff who believe they are above the legislation etc.
    I concur, and in my experience and also to my cos, I and other team members saw this first hand where departmental guidelines, legislation and even specialist departmental advice was ignored. The cover-up was huge and the final costings estimated to have exceeded £1/2m when calculating lost staff, replacement and retraining costs and management costs for ensuing grievances or 'dispute resolution'!
    The sheer arrogance of mostly previous C&E managers as well as droid-like fast trackers combined with disregard of legislation was breathtaking and compounded by the fact that Pariament was aware but failed to act.
    The only way to sort this out is to inject the IPCC in there, we are after all talking criminal as well as civil lawbreaking.
    Just don't hold your breath in the meantime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The above is very interesting and the public have right to know about it, particularly when the service to them is often poor and then vast sums of, what is at the end of day, their money is misused covering up bullying & other wrongs, which ruins people's careers and in some cases their lives. These aren't trivial matters really and I wondered if HMRC have every considered that in failing to act with integrity about such internal matters, how can the public have trust & confidence in the honesty & objectivity of the same people when it comes to how their tax cases are handled?

      Delete
    2. If the public let alone 'dear old Amyas' of NAO fame ever got an inkling of how many £Bns. of hard earned tax paid taxpayers dosh has been wasted throughout this organisation there might be a wee bit of a ruckus.
      The fact that there is no effective corporate governance or ownership within HMRC 'management' added to an almost complete lack of interest by both main political parties should be a cause for concern, why is this so?
      It would not take a genius to connect the dots and uncover the overall picture, perhaps a job for a couple of good post grad MP's interns supported by a decent investigative journo and then ...

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    3. The problem with the senior HMRC management is they seem to think the very fact they are senior civil servants, allegedly subject to the civil service code etc, of itself means they respectable people of integrity whereas most normal people know this has to be earned and that integrity is absolute, not something that you get given just because you work at HMRC. In turn they then act all sanctimonious while bearing false witness to the brutal bullying of staff and deviously trying to cover up, with taxpayers cash, the suffering of pesky survivors of their misconduct. There are far too many survivors of bullying out of this department, a clear pattern of an out of control regime and we have to hope the truth will out and staff will be held accountable...

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  13. Nobody in government gives a shit because we are told 90% of the potential revenue is collected from the honest taxpayer without any intervention.

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    Replies
    1. That being the case the department needs to put more resource into helping the honest majority & more resource into targeting the other 10% and less resource in the non-jobs in Senior Management, HR, the spin department, and the dodgy stats department. Whiteboard meetings should also be banned - it is a fact that by the time HMRC started having them industry best practice had moved on. Always the same with the 'dynamic' hmrc management, by the time they start something new the world has moved on...

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