Email your MP about HMRCs use of managed service providers

In 2025, HMRC began piloting the use of private Managed Service Providers (MSPs) including HGS (Hinduja Global Solutions) and SERCO to carry out customer contact work on the Online Helpdesk and PAYE lines. HMRC claims this is to help manage “peak demand,” but the move marks a significant return to outsourcing customer service functions that previously failed disastrously.

Early indications are already alarming. In February, HMRC told staff that MSP procedural accuracy on Online Services was 50% - 23% lower than HMRC’s own Business as usual teams, with many errors involving missed or incorrect security checks.

This follows well documented historical failures in outsourcing, most notably the Concentrix scandal, where vulnerable claimants lost benefits due to contractor errors, long call wait times, and catastrophic backlogs. HMRC previously told Parliament that the risks of outsourcing customer service “outweighed the benefits” yet is now returning to the same approach.

Using private providers for frontline customer contact introduces serious operational and reputational risks. It removes work from HMRC’s direct control and threatens service quality at a time when public confidence in tax administration is vital.

Please contact your MP and ask them to:

• Require HMRC to publish evidence of value for money, service quality, and risks.
• Press HMRC to halt any expansion of MSP usage until proper scrutiny has taken place.
• Support insourcing and publicly delivered services in line with Government commitments.
• Ensure that frontline customer contact remains a publicly delivered, secure, and accountable service.