"PaceSetter is travelling in the right direction but not
fast enough. After five years HMRC's approach to process
improvement should be better measured, more sophisticated and more
ambitious in its transformation of the Department."
Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 15 July
2011
HM Revenue & Customs' PaceSetter Programme, aimed at
streamlining business operations, has improved productivity through
new ways of working and may have contributed to greater staff
engagement. However, the National Audit Office has concluded that
the Programme is not yet value for money because the extent to
which efficiency has improved is not clear; and some key principles
of process improvement are not yet being applied strategically
across the entire organisation and embedded into the Department's
core processes.
PaceSetter, introduced five years ago, is designed to help HM
Revenue & Customs change the way it works, to deliver more for
less resource. Through PaceSetter, the Department has pioneered the
use of process improvement techniques in central government. The
types of improvements made vary but have included the redesign of
claim forms, the standardisation of procedures across offices and
more tailored approaches to checks based on risk.
The Department estimated that productivity improvements due to
PaceSetter between 2005-06 and 2010-11 are equivalent to £400
million of resource savings and £860 million of tax yield. However
the extent to which these reported savings represent overall
efficiency improvements is not clear, in part because of the
limited evidence on overall trends in business performance.
PaceSetter aims to engage frontline staff in continuously improving
the way they work and so improve staff motivation. The Programme
has had a small positive impact on staff engagement but overall it
is still low.
HMRC does not have a full understanding of the costs of
PaceSetter. The Department decided to monitor only certain of the
costs involved, and excluded, for example, the salary costs of its
own PaceSetter experts. Analysis undertaken by the NAO shows that a
more complete assessment of costs brings the total spent on
PaceSetter from £55 million to at least £115 million between
2005-06 and 2010-11 on consultancy, equipment, staff and travel
costs.
To maximise the benefits of PaceSetter, the Department needs to
use the Programme to help it streamline its business operations in
a more strategic way, based on a clear understanding of processes
in their entirety and of what its customers require.
Publication details:
HC: 1280, 2010-2012
ISBN: 9780102969870