As tax department enters crucial months of £126m programme to provide a unified digital account for citizens, a subsidiary of IT giant Atos has been contracted to provide additional support
HM Revenue and Customs has signed a contract to tap into £1m of extra tech support as it enters a crucial delivery period for its £100m-plus Single Customer Account project.
The programme, which has formed part of government’s major projects portfolio since 2021, is intended to bring together the department’s existing personal and business tax online accounts into a single system. The new unified system will also provide citizens with “new functionality to create a single, personalised, intuitive, and relevant digital experience for our customers”, according to HMRC guidance.
Government major projects data states that the project is forecast to cost £126m to deliver, with work completed by 31 March 2026.
HMRC has previously indicated, however, that it believes the Single Customer Account (SCA) will be ready by June 2025. And, according to recently published commercial information, the department may even be able to finish work even earlier than this.
On 25 September, the tax agency entered into an initial six-month deal with Paris-headquartered digital transformation consultancy Eviden. The deal will see the supplier – which is owned by fellow French company and IT services giant Atos – provide HMRC with additional support for the SCA’s tech infrastructure. The engagement comes with an estimated value of £1m.
According to the award notice: “This contract is for the provision of a managed service supporting the Single Customer Account Programme which is due to [complete in] April 2025. Specifically, provision of a system architecture service for optimisation and testing, utilising agile development methods.”
The deal was signed using the Digital and Legacy Application Services (Dalas) framework, a £3bn arrangement which – while available to buyers across the public sector – is focused on helping HMRC to upgrade legacy software systems. The HMRC contract for architecture support stemmed from lot 4a of Dalas and was awarded using a ‘taxi rank’ system, where suppliers are engaged in turn on a rota, as support needs arise.
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This sub-lot is dedicated to “multi-product configuration services”, including a variety of software development, support, migration and data-management offerings – as well as “knowledge transfer and skills development to support the intelligent client capability of the buyer”, according to framework documents.
Eviden parent company Atos is one six suppliers to feature in this section, alongside fellow consultancy heavyweights Accenture, Capgemini, Coforge, Cognizant, and Deloitte.
In the 2023 edition of government’s annual major project rundown, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority gave the SCA programme a delivery confidence rating of amber on its traffic-light system – an improvement from the red rating of 2022.
In an accompanying data release published last summer, HMRC said: “Following an IPA review in January 2023, the review found a well-run programme with a clearer view and organisational understanding of what it intends to achieve. The programme is deliverable and well-led, has senior backing and clear near-term deliverables, but will require attention and commitment of resources to maximise success. Activity continues to pivot the programme into delivery: the immediate next phase of work is clear, scope beyond is less obvious.”
It added: “It is critical that the programme continues to develop the criteria for agreeing, prioritising scope and remove friction in the organisation to deliver often and at pace to deliver the highest value to customers. The programme will continue to evolve the cost model and benefits to support business case delivery. [In] recognition of difficulty in defining the end-state – which does not have a ‘big bang’ moment – the roadmap will be refined to optimise as a communications tool for wider visibility of activities.”
That data set also provided further context on the aims of the customer account unification scheme, which it said will “deliver the digital transformation expected by our customers, required for the department, and defined in the tax administration strategy by developing a task based, personalised and intuitive multi-channel digital experience”.
It added: “It will consider the end-to-end customer journeys in order to drive adoption and make digital channels the first choice for our customers. In doing so, we will increase voluntary compliance through automation across digital channels and increase customer satisfaction.”
The amber rating awarded by the IPA last year indicates that project assessors have concluded that: “Successful delivery appears feasible but significant issues already exist, requiring management attention. These appear resolvable at this stage and, if addressed promptly, should not present a cost/schedule overrun.”
