Tax department has retained a London digital consultancy to help provide services related to areas such as the management and preparation of data, in a deal worth millions of pounds

HM Revenue and Customs has put in place a major deal for “outcome-based” services related to data and technology projects.

On 26 November, the department entered into a four-year agreement with London-based digital consultancy Equal Experts. The contract was awarded via the first lot of the Big Data and Analytics framework run by government’s Crown Commercial Service. This segment, where Equal Experts features alongside 28 other suppliers, is dedicated to the design, construction and ongoing delivery of professional services related to big data.

For HMRC, the department’s chosen provider has been retained to deliver “core outcome-based IT services”.

This will encompass the delivery of “professional services grouped under the banner of ‘core’ to cover data preparation, data management and platform lifecycle management”, according to a newly published commercial notice.

The document reveals that the contract will run until November 2029, and will be worth £172.4m to the supplier.

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The contract is the latest in a number of major developments this year concerning HMRC’s use of data and the underpinning infrastructure and services. This includes some significant public-facing tools, including plans unveiled in March for a new online platform enabling 34 million taxpayers around the country to access and amend their PAYE tax information. Meanwhile, internally the department has shed light on its intention to better use information to increase its understanding of the economic affairs of billionaires – and thereby bring in hundreds of millions of pounds in additional tax revenue – as well as recently investing £6m in a data-management platform that “plays a vital role… [in] underpinning a number of essential services”, according to the department.

Six months ago, HMRC revealed the results of government-commissioned research on citizens’ attitude towards data-sharing which identified a “lack of awareness and understanding of the issues”. According to a summary of the research released by the tax agency, the prospect of personal info being distributed both within and beyond government was found to be “an emotive topic with mixed responses”.