HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is today warning customers not to share sensitive personal information online to avoid their identities being used to commit tax fraud.

HMRC is aware that criminals are attempting to obtain customers’ Government Gateway logins and other personal details, enabling them to register for Income Tax Self Assessment and submit bogus tax refund claims before pocketing the repayment.

Individuals, ranging from teenagers to pensioners, are being targeted on social media platforms by fraudsters seeking to ‘borrow’ their identities. In return, the individual is promised a cut of the tax refund ‘risk-free’.

Handing over sensitive personal information to criminals like this, even inadvertently, risks individuals involving themselves in tax fraud, and having to pay back the full value of the fraudulent claim.

Customers should therefore only deal with HMRC directly or through their tax advisor in relation to their Self Assessment tax refunds.

Simon Cubitt, Head of Cybercrime, HMRC said:

People need to think extremely carefully before they involve themselves in an arrangement like this, because if something looks too good to be true, then it almost certainly is.

Those who get involved risk becoming the victim of blackmail, threats of violence and wider abuse of their personal information, as criminals seek to exploit them further.

I urge anyone who may be aware of these dishonest attempts to recruit individuals into criminality, to report it us by searching ‘Report Fraud HMRC’ on GOV.UK and completing our online form.

In addition to their Government Gateway credentials, customers may also be asked to provide details of their bank account, passport, driving licence, address, date of birth, and National Insurance number.

HMRC is working with other law enforcement agencies and social media companies to tackle criminality on online platforms.

Last month (10 February), HMRC made coordinated arrests of four individuals aged between 16 and 33 in Hertfordshire, Bristol, Derbyshire and Buckinghamshire as part of an investigation into suspected Self Assessment repayment fraud and money laundering offences. Investigations are ongoing.

The National Cyber Security Centre has helpful guides on how to stay secure online and protect yourself or your business against cybercrime.

Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve shared personal information online, and report it to Action Fraud (in Scotland, contact the police on 101). If you have been approached by someone asking for tax information, you can report it to HMRC.

Details of the arrests:

• a man aged 16 from Hertfordshire
• a man aged 22 from Buckinghamshire
• a man aged 26 from Derbyshire
• a man aged 33 from Bristol

The deadline for 2020 to 2021 Self Assessment tax returns was 31 January. Earlier this year, HMRC waived late penalties for one month to give customers extra time to meet their obligations without facing a penalty. More than 11.3 million customers filed their tax return by 28 February. Any customers who are yet to pay their tax in full, or set up a time to pay arrangement, have until 1 April to do so to avoid a late payment penalty.

On this International Women’s Day 2022, the British High Commission (BHC) Singapore is renewing its commitment to gender equality across the organisation, from our culture and values, to hiring polices, partnerships and collaborations, and communications.

BHC Singapore has updated its #GenderPledge – first taken in 2019 – to further integrate gender equality and inclusion objectives into business planning, and commits the BHC’s management board to regularly review the pledge.

The #GenderPledge will continue to set out for the BHC and its staff key actions, measures and best practices – such as ensuring events have a balanced gender representation; avoiding gender stereotyping in public communications; and supporting employees with flexible work arrangements; among others measures.

The #GenderPledge campaign was initiated by the High Commission of Canada in Singapore in 2019.

Now in its second iteration, it seeks to raise awareness and demonstrate how organisations, businesses and individuals can incorporate – or have incorporated – measures to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment into daily operations, policies and practices.

Along with renewing their commitments to the #GenderPledge for 2022, both High Commissions are also encouraging other foreign embassies, companies and organisations to initiate their own pledges or to re-affirm an existing one.

The BHC’s #GenderPledge aligns with the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s ‘3 Es’ framework – to educate girls, empower women, and end violence. This will comprise a new strategy for Women and Girls this year that sets out the UK’s ambition, combining diplomacy and development levers.

Through the #GenderPledge, the BHC seeks to promote women’s leadership and agency to ensure their voices are heard at all levels, and ensuring women can participate fully and fairly in the economy.

The UK has a strong global reputation in standing up for the rights of women and girls around the world. Our work is transforming lives and helping to build longer term prosperity, stability, and a fairer and freer world that will benefit everyone.

Our Gender Pledge:

Workplace Culture and Hiring Practices

• The British High Commission (BHC) is mindful of gender balance within divisions/departments, sections, and job grades. Where a serious imbalance exists, the BHC will ensure that in recruitment, applicants from the underrepresented sex are encouraged to apply.

• In job specifications, we will avoid language that might indicate gender stereotyping.

• We will raise awareness and take firm action to prevent and address sexual abuse and harassment. Employees are encouraged to report sexual harassment and are provided with a confidential mechanism to do so. We are committed to ensuring no staff member experiences bullying, harassment or discrimination in the workplace.

• We support staff who require flexible work arrangements.

• We support short-term resourcing gaps with ‘returnships’, which help to re-integrate back into the BHC those who have taken a career break (e.g. parents who have taken a few years out to raise their children).

• We are a family-friendly workplace and have a relaxation/breastfeeding room.

• We have an active Respect Committee with a Diversity Charter in place that fosters and promotes the best practices of accepting, respecting, and valuing differences, including gender, among staff.

• We will seek training opportunities to equip staff with the tools needed to integrate gender equality into their work.

• Gender equality and inclusion objectives will be mainstreamed within our country business plan.

• A Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Analysis will be completed for all Overseas Development Assistance Projects.

Events management and VIP visits

• We will ensure all public events organised by the BHC have balanced gender representation.

• We will challenge event organisers to strive for balanced gender representation and decline to participate on speaker panels where good faith efforts have not been made to that end.

• We will aim to ensure equitable allocation of speaking time and roles between men and women.

• The BHC advocates for all official UK delegations to Singapore to have balanced gender representation.

• Where the BHC is organising and funding a delegation’s travel to Singapore, it will strive for balanced gender representation on those delegations.

Partnerships and business collaborations

• We will regularly engage institutions, partners, and businesses to promote gender equality in their workplaces.

• We will support events that promote gender equality.

• We will organise or support at least two events per year focused solely on gender equality awareness.

Communications

• We will highlight the UK’s commitment to gender equality in communication materials.

• We will ensure visuals and photos in communication materials have appropriate gender balance.

• We will avoid unnecessary gendered terminology in our communications and avoid stereotyping.

• We will communicate gender equality milestones on social media platforms as and when appropriate.

Gender equality champions

• A gender equality champion will be responsible for providing guidance on enhancing gender equality at the Mission and tracking progress on the implementation of the gender pledge.

• The British High Commission Management Board will regularly review our Gender Pledge Commitments in consultation with our Core Values Committee and BHC staff.

• Minister for Women, Baroness Stedman-Scott, launches initiatives to level up employment opportunities for women
• Participating employers will run pilots aimed at closing salary gaps by publishing salaries on all job adverts
• New ‘returners’ programme to support women into STEM roles after taking time out to care for loved ones

Minister for Women, Baroness Stedman-Scott, is today (8 March) launching two new initiatives to level up employment opportunities for women as the country recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Announced on International Women’s Day, a new initiative will seek to improve pay transparency in the job application process and help businesses who want to go even further in attracting women to their positions. Evidence shows listing a salary range on a job advert and not asking applicants to disclose salary history provides a firm footing for women to negotiate pay on a fairer basis. This could have a significant impact in closing salary gaps and tackling pay inequality.

The government is therefore leading the way with a pilot scheme, where participating employers list salary details on job adverts and stop asking about salary history during recruitment.

Alongside this, the Government will launch a new returners programme to help women back into STEM (science, technology, engineering & maths) careers. Research and employee feedback shows that returning to STEM roles after taking time out to care for loved ones can present significant challenges. This new programme will help organisations to recruit and retain talented staff who are often overlooked because of a gap on their CV, by providing training, development and employment support to those who have taken time out for caring.

Minister for Women, Baroness Stedman-Scott, said:

“The UK can only grasp its full potential by championing its brightest and best, and ensuring everyone, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to succeed.

“We believe that increased pay transparency will build on positive evidence of the role information can play when it comes to empowering women in the workplace. It is essential that we keep women at the forefront of the levelling up agenda as we recover from the pandemic and rebuild together.

“Our second announcement, supporting skilled women to return to STEM careers after care leave, will keep talented minds in STEM and improve the representation of women and marginalised communities in those incredibly important roles.”

International data also shows that job seekers place a strong emphasis on salary when looking for their next career move. In a Glassdoor survey 68% of people say that a salary was the most important factor of a job advert, showing that, where possible, it makes good business sense to share salary details at the very beginning of the application process.

Additionally, a study from the Fawcett Society shows that a requirement to provide salary history makes everyone less confident when negotiating their pay. It has a particularly negative impact on women’s confidence, with 58% of women saying that they felt they had received a lower salary offer than they would have if the question had not been asked during the application process.

However, the Government recognises that many employers do not have agreed pay scales, and that ambiguous pay policies and historic pay decisions may make it challenging for them to include pay information on job adverts. That is why the forthcoming pilot will see the Government work with employers to develop and pilot a methodology which others can adopt, so that all organisations can provide pay information at the recruitment stage and remove their reliance on questions about pay history if they choose.

Jemima Olchawski, Fawcett Society, Chief Executive:

“We are pleased that the government is encouraging employers to remove embedded bias from recruitment practices and supporting our call to End Salary History. Asking salary history questions keeps women on lower salaries and contributes to the UK’s gender pay gap – and can mean that past pay discrimination follows women and other groups throughout their career.

“Evidence from US states which have banned asking about past salary shows that is a simple, evidence-led way to improve pay equality for women, people of colour and disabled people. This is an important first step. We hope more employers will answer this call, and sign Fawcett’s pledge, as part of other actions to tackle their pay gaps.”

The Government has already run 25 returner programmes across the private and public sector and will use learning from these initiatives to design the new STEM programme.

Unpaid care work, including childcare and informal adult care, is disproportionately performed by women. This can have a big impact on pay and progression, with research showing that returners with degrees are, on average, paid 70% of the hourly wage of an equivalent colleague who has not taken time away from work.

By launching the new returners programme, the government is hoping to support those who are looking to step back into work, particularly in STEM sectors. The 2021 STEM Returners index survey revealed that 61% of returners found the process of returning to the industry difficult or very difficult. Those who did return commented on being overqualified for their role and had entered at levels below where they were prior to their break.

In line with the Government’s commitment to level up opportunities, the new programme will support returners across the UK – giving them the opportunity to refresh and grow their skills in sectors where their talents are most needed. It will run for a minimum of two years, and the evidence gathered will enable and provide a base for organisations to provide their own returner programmes.

The new pilot launched at family courts in North Wales and Dorset aims to improve information sharing between agencies such as the police, local authorities and the courts. This could include local domestic abuse professionals sharing risk assessments with the court to spare victims and parties in the case the trauma of having to unnecessarily repeat their experiences.

Crucially, it will also boost the voice of children at every stage of the process, ensuring they are listened to and their views are taken into account when decisions are made about their futures. It will see children given more opportunity to explain how they feel and, following a court order, to say whether it is working for them.  

The pilots work by allowing judges to review gathered information and request more documentation before a case gets to court. It avoids the circumstances of the case being debated in the courtroom, which can often exacerbate conflict between parents. The pilot will also encourage proceedings to be less adversarial so that more emphasis can be put into investigating and addressing allegations of domestic abuse and other harmful behaviours – rather than allowing confrontation in the courtroom to take place.

Between three months and a year after a ruling is made, in most cases the courts and the agencies involved will carry out a review to ensure decisions made are working well. This includes assessing whether court orders are being followed and whether additional support is needed.

Justice Minister Lord Wolfson QC said:

This government is doing everything we can to protect victims, make them feel safer, and give them greater confidence in the justice system.

These pilots will help ensure victims of domestic abuse aren’t further traumatised by the court process and that better decisions are made about their and their children’s lives.

This, alongside our landmark Domestic Abuse Act, will ensure that victims are loudly heard and fully supported.

The pilot follows from a review of Family Courts which found that an adversarial process often worsened conflict between parents and could have a damaging impact on victims and their children.

Today’s (8 March 2022) announcement forms part of the government’s sweeping reforms to transform the way family courts operate, contained in the Domestic Abuse Act. These include a ban on perpetrators cross-examining their victims as well as measures to prevent them from repeatedly bringing their ex-partners back to court – which can be used as a form of continuing domestic abuse.

Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales

Every day I hear from domestic abuse survivors about their experiences in the family courts. Many victims and their children feel re-traumatised by the process which is why seeing improvements in the family courts is one of my top priorities as Commissioner

I am delighted to see the Harm Panel’s recommendation to test a more investigative approach to domestic abuse cases now being piloted.

Crucial to the success of these pilots will be ensuring that domestic abuse – particularly coercive control and the impact it has on adult and child victims – is fully understood and the risk it poses to survivors and children is taken into account throughout the proceedings.

Rhianon Argent, Senior Practitioner, Bournemouth Women’s Refuge & BCP Outreach Team, said:

BCHA are pleased to be involved in this important pilot project that will provide essential support for domestic abuse survivors going through the family court. This project has enabled us to recently recruit a specialist support worker, as part of our domestic abuse team, who will be dedicated to the family court.

They will focus on the safety of victims at risk of harm from partners, ex-partners or family members providing support before, during and after the court process.

In addition they will provide training and support for court personnel in understanding domestic abuse and coercive control.

This is a much-needed new initiative, so that we can raise awareness of the trauma caused by domestic abuse and help to achieve best evidence at court with victims and survivors in Bournemouth and the surrounding areas.

Rhian Lewis, Head of Operations / Deputy CEO, Domestic Abuse Safety Unit (DASU) North Wales

DASU are very excited to be actively involved in the pathfinder’s pilot in North Wales.

Many of the families that we support have felt let down by the Family Courts system stating that they felt that no one was listening to their experiences of domestic abuse and that perpetrators were able to continue to control and abuse them through this process. Survivors of domestic abuse have suffered enough.

The Pathfinder pilot is a real opportunity to change the way that we support families that experience domestic abuse by recognising the risk, addressing safeguarding issues, reducing re-traumatisation and putting children and their non-abusive parent at the heart of the process. This system will improve their quality of life and put a stop to perpetrators being able to use the Family Courts as a means of exercising their control.

The investigative pilot will be tested initially in Bournemouth and Weymouth in Dorset, and Caernarfon, Mold, Prestatyn and Wrexham in North Wales for up to two years before a full evaluation.

The pilot was designed in consultation with a wide range of family justice experts including judges, charities and academics and is comprised of three stages. Agencies will first gather information and assess whether there are any concerns for a child or person involved in the case about substance misuse, domestic abuse, or other welfare issues. There will then be a hearing to decide what interventions or decisions are required, for example whether it could be suitable for mediation out of court. It would also look at whether programmes such as Separated Parent programmes on how to put children first when a relationship breaks down are needed before an order is made. The new process aims to take the confrontational elements out of the family court system, with a focus more on investigating and solving problems to reduce potential harm to those involved.

The pilot will also, when appropriate and safe, help direct families towards accessing out of court options such as mediation. This could see them avoid the family courts altogether, resolving disputes without the stress of often lengthy and costly courtroom battles.

The government has invested more than £3.3 million into a landmark mediation voucher scheme helping thousands of families find amicable solutions outside the courts. Since its launch in March 2021, over 5,800 vouchers have already been used under the scheme with 77 percent of cases reaching full or partial agreements away from the family courts.

Notes to editors

• The pilot was drawn up by the Private Law Advisory and Pilots Group made up of individual members of the judiciary, Cafcass, HMCTS, and the Ministry of Justice. It also worked closely with stakeholders such as the Family Justice Young People’s Board, academics, police, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, and charities such as Women’s Aid, Welsh Women’s Aid, SafeLives, Respect, JUSTICE, Centre of Justice Innovation, and the Nuffield Foundation.
• The types of cases being involved in the Integrated Domestic Abuse Courts are:
  • Child arrangement orders – an order that decides the arrangements of whom a child is to live with, spend time with, or has contact with.
  • Specific issue order – to resolve a particular issue around parental responsibility. For example, this could be around medical treatment, name change, relocation or education.
  • Prohibited steps order – to prevent a parent from carrying out a particular action as part of their parental responsibility. For example, removing and relocating the child to outside England and Wales or changing a child’s surname.
• In January 2022, the Government announced £1.3 million in funding for a Family Mediation voucher scheme, bringing the total amount to nearly £3.1 with thousands of families benefiting from free out of court mediation.
• In August 2021, the Government announced a call for evidence on dispute resolution, seeking views on the best ways to settle family, business and other civil disputes away from the court room. A response will be published in due course.
• In November 2020, a review of the Presumption of Parental Contact was launched. This work is still ongoing.
• In December 2021, the Government launched a consultation on a new Victims’ Law which would help provide greater support to victims and ensure they have a voice in the justice system. This consultation closed in February and will be responded to in due course.