We all know that HM Revenue & Customs is trying to save money, but did it need to ban call centre staff from keeping photos on their desks?

Last week, the tax authority caused an uproar among union groups as news filtered out that HMRC employees in North Wales had been issued with a directive banning a raft of everyday items because they were seen as inefficient.

Unions accused the government of treating staff like robots and wasting public cash on ‘hare-brained’ schemes. ‘This Brave New World’ is not only deskilling hard-working staff, it is dehumanising them,’ said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union. ‘It’s ridiculous that service workers are banned from having things such as photos on their desks.’

Since the 2004 Gershon Review, which set a target of £20bn in annual efficiency gains by 2007-08, through a 2.5% a year efficiency target for the whole public sector, the tax body has found itself under the microscope. The review floated a sweep of efficiency drives up until 2008, which were interpreted as a thinly veiled cost-cutting exercise.

The document promised to cut 14,000 posts by the end of 2007-08, but HMRC has found itself stuck between high government expectations of increased efficiencies and union anger as problems surfaced since the cuts have been introduced.