A withering attack came today in a House of Commons Treasury committee report which looked at issues such as the handling of new tax credits, the PFI deal with Revenue property and problems with national insurance contributions.

It concluded that there had been 'a catalogue of significant administrative failures by the Revenue which Treasury ministers must address as a matter of urgency'.

A Revenue spokesman said: 'We are studying the report carefully and have learnt from the issues that the committee has been critical of, but overall we get more things right that we get wrong.'

Since the publication of the report David Ruffley, a member of the Treasury committee and a former special adviser to Kenneth Clarke when he was chancellor, has said that Dawn Primarolo, the paymaster general, should quit because of her failure to liaise properly with Sir Nick Montagu, head of the Revenue.