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The recommendations were made in Adjudicator, Dame Barbara Mills QC's Annual Report for 2001, which highlighted a four per cent increase in the number of complaints about the Inland Revenue.
The Adjudicator's Office completed a total of 491 complaints, upholding 204 of them either wholly or in part. Out of the 491 cases, 351 were resolved by recommendation and 152 were resolved through mediating a settlement that was acceptable to both sides.
It was recommended by the Adjudicator's Office that the Revenue pays a total of £481,612 to complainants- an increase of almost £100,000 on the previous year. This is also the highest amount the Adjudicator's Office has had to recommend since the Office was created in 1993.
The Revenue was recommended to pay £131,711 in compensation for costs arising directly from their serious or persistent errors as well as £13,387 in consolatory payments and £3,935 for poor complaints handling.
In 21 cases the Adjudicator's Office recommended that the Inland Revenue give up tax or interest amounting to £332,579. One case saw the largest single compensation payout of £50,000.
The Adjudicator's Office looks into complaints about the Inland Revenue in conjunction with the organisation's own Code of Practice after they have been through the organisation's own complaints procedures. The kind of issues that the Adjudicator's Office handles are: mistakes; the behaviour of staff; delays; poor and misleading advice and access to information under Open Government.
Dame Barbara Mills stated in the report: "I have for some time been concerned that the main Codes of Practice on redress with which I work, and by which I am constrained, are no longer adequate for the increasingly customer-focused environment in which we operate. I have raised this issue tirelessly and am delighted that, with others, we will now be working with the departments as a matter of urgency in revising those Codes in line with modern expectations."
Inland Revenue Chairman, Nick Montagu, welcomed the report saying:
"We are totally committed to providing the best possible service to our customers. Inevitably we sometimes fall short. Where we do, we aim to deal with a complaint quickly and fairly ourselves. We are making real progress, as the 18 per cent fall in complaints going to the Adjudicator this year shows."
Asked how the 18 per cent fall in general complaints cited by Mr Montague related to the four per cent rise in complaints directed specifically at the Revenue, a spokesman said:
"The number of complaints received by the Adjudicator about the Revenue fell from 2436 in the year 2000 to 2044 this year. The Adjudicator took up 544 of these complaints for investigation. This is in the context of some 30 million customers. However, we are far from complaisant and when we make serious or persistent errors we make an ex- gratia payment to help put matters right."
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Richard Powell, Shout99
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