HMRC publishes provisional update on phone performance

Ahead of the publication of its annual report and accounts which usually takes place in July, last week HMRC published a provisional update on its phone performance. The update was published just the day before HMRC experienced a major phone outage on Wednesday 4 June. The outage happened on the same day that HMRC senior officials appeared before the House of Commons Treasury Committee.  

According to the provisional update, in March 2025, HMRC handled 80.2 percent of calls, up from 71.5 percent for the year to 31 March 2025. The Department took 14 minutes and 44 seconds on average to answer a call, down from 18 minutes and 38 seconds for the year to 31 March 2025. 

At HMRC’s Treasury Committee hearing, it was stressed that the phone outage on Wednesday was not related to the announcement of the loss of £47 million as a result of phishing attacks and that the lines themselves were not down but had instead been closed because the system used to handle incoming calls had experienced an outage. According to the appearance, the phone line set up for recipients of the phishing fraud letter was unaffected. 

The news of the recent phishing scam and HMRC’s customer service levels were discussed at the Treasury Committee hearing in addition to: 

• HMRC's priorities for the next three to five years, 

• HMRC’s collection of taxes from wealthy individuals following the recent publication of a National Audit Office Report, 

• The exodus of wealthy taxpayers from the UK, and 

• HMRC delays in processing refunds.  

HMRC’s new Permanent Secretary and CEO JP Marks appeared in front of Committee for the first time last week. A full transcript from the hearing has not yet been published but will be available here.