Press release: HMRC’s Welsh language customer services team to remain in Porthmadog

The HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) team offering tax services for customers in Welsh is to remain in Porthmadog.

HMRC has confirmed that the 17 people currently based at Ty Moelwyn will be co-locating with colleagues at the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP’s) Thedford House site in early 2018.

This move allows HMRC to keep its Welsh language team in Porthmadog and also enables both departments to explore how they might work together in the future to provide Welsh language customer services.

Rachel McLean, Director General of Customer Services, HMRC said:

This move is vital to the success of our plans to continue to provide Welsh language customer services from Porthmadog. It will also allow us to explore how we might develop those services with both DWP and other government departments in the future.

UK Government Minister Guto Bebb said:

I am delighted that we have been able to secure the future for this vitally important UK Government office, which provides an essential service for Welsh speakers.

Several UK Government departments in Wales have worked hard to make this happen and it shows what we can achieve when we work together to reach a joint solution.

This demonstrates the UK Government’s commitment to the Welsh language and to ensuring that we maximise the benefits that come from co-locating Government offices to provide the best possible service for the taxpayer.

Fiona Jones, Work Services Director for Jobcentre Plus Wales, said:

We look forward to welcoming HMRC colleagues into Thedford House from early next year, and sharing our delivery experiences with them. Delivery of Welsh language customer services is a growing part of our jobcentres and service centres across Wales.

Notes for Editors:

  1. The Modernisation Programme includes investment in new online services, data analytics, new compliance techniques, new skills and new ways of working, to make it easier for the honest majority of customers to pay their tax, including by improving customer service, and harder for the dishonest minority to cheat the system. The changes have already resulted in over 80 per cent of people filing their self-assessment returns online and given customers new, simple ways to check their payments, make changes or find answers to questions.

  2. HMRC’s workforce in Wales is currently spread throughout five offices, which range in size from around 2,750 people to fewer than 10.

  3. Ty Moelwyn was originally scheduled to close in the 2019-20 financial year.

  4. HMRC will be closing five offices in Wales in total including Ty Moelwyn. Ty Nant in Swansea and Ty Glas and Brunel House in Cardiff will close in 2019-20, although there will be no estate changes until the Regional Centre in Cardiff opens. Plas Gororau in Wrexham will remain open until 2020-21.

  5. We announced the locations for the regional centres in November 2015.

  6. HMRC is phasing in the moves over 10 years to allow staff time to make choices for their future and reduce the number of possible redundancies.

  7. The high-level plans for transforming HMRC were first shared with its people in November 2015. Since then, HMRC has held around 2,000 events across the UK, talking to colleagues about how it is changing and involving them in the discussions.