HM Revenue and Customs has appointed two former senior civil servants as non-executive directors, one of whom founded a firm that donated tens of thousands of pounds to the Labour Party.
Digital transformation expert Mike Bracken and tax specialist Bill Dodwell have joined the HM Revenue and Customs Board, which is chaired by James Murray, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury.
Dodwell will chair the board's Closing the Tax Gap Committee, while Bracken will chair its Modernisation and Reform Committee.
Bracken founded the Government Digital Service and was the UK’s first government chief data officer, while Dodwell was previously tax director of the Office of Tax Simplification, which was shut down last year.
As well as setting up the GDS, Bracken is a director at Public Digital, a company he founded that has donated more than £100,000 to the Labour Party, according to The Times.
Bracken said: “I’m delighted to be asked to help HMRC accelerate its digital capability. Along with a new group of advisers, we aim to support the talented team in charge of the transformation efforts to improve public services for citizens and businesses alike.”
The government faced criticism earlier this year over another appointment from the company – Emily Middleton, who was hired as a temporary director general at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in August.
Middleton had worked for now-science and technology secretary Peter Kyle when he was shadow secretary of state on secondment from Public Digital, where she was a partner. Her secondment was provided at no cost to the Labour politician as a “donation in kind” of £67,000 from the consultancy firm. Since the election, the consultancy has won contracts with the Cabinet Office and Department for Business and Trade. CSW understands that Public Digital does not currently work with HMRC – and will not take on any work with the department in the future.
Before joining the Office of Tax Simplification, Dodwell was head of tax policy at Deloitte. He has law degrees from King’s College London and Queens’ College Cambridge and is a chartered accountant and chartered tax adviser. He is a former member of HMRC’s General Anti-Abuse Rule Advisory Panel and an ex-president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
HMRC said the duo “will bring fresh expertise and experience to the board as it focuses on Murray’s three strategic priorities for HMRC”, which are: closing the tax gap; improving customer service; and modernising and reforming the tax agency.
Jim Harra, HMRC's permanent secretary and chief executive, who is departing next year, said: “I’m delighted Mike and Bill are joining the board and adding their expert knowledge to the considerable expertise that already exists on the board.
“They will help HMRC to deliver on the minister’s priorities of closing the tax gap, improving customer service, and modernising and reforming HMRC.”
Both recruits to the board have been appointed for a fixed term of one year.
An HMRC spokesperson said the appointments were "made in accordance with the relevant guidance". "Non-executive directors are required to register their interests and must abide by the code of conduct for board members of public bodies," they added.
CSW understands HMRC will soon publicly advertise for permanent NEDs.
Four non-execs that previously served on the board or supported the work of its committees are no longer listed on HMRC’s GOV.UK site: David Cooper, Susie Warran-Smith, Thomas Taylor and Elizabeth Fullerton-Rome.
Since the general election, 20 non-execs have left posts in government departments. Cabinet Office minister Georgia Gould confirmed the number, which does not include arm's-length bodies, in response to a parliamentary question from John Glen, the shadow paymaster general and former minister for the Cabinet Office.
The processes for appointing NEDs has come in for criticism this year. In February, the National Audit Office asked the Cabinet Office to “set out what good looks like" for non-exec appointments. And, in May, the Public Accounts Committee warned that the process for appointing NEDs is "unacceptably sluggish" and “not set up to encourage diversity… with a lack of transparency on requirements for political independence”.
This article includes some additional reporting from CSW's sister publication Public Technology