New slogan costs HMRC £1.5m
Three meetings of 450 senior staff – but the best slogan they can produce is 'HMRC Ambition'
HM Revenue and Customs spent almost £1.5m holding brainstorming meetings for
senior civil servants to devise a new slogan for the department.
But despite the expense, the best the 450-strong team could come up with was
‘HMRC Ambition’, according to a
Daily
Mail report.
Among the alternative slogans discussed, but later rejected, was a ‘pink and
fluffy’ logo spelling out ‘Thank You’, aimed at lawful taxpayers, and a grey
‘Elite Enforcement’ slogan, warning tax evaders that they would be tracked down.
The meeting costs, totalling about £1.3m were revealed following a written
question to parliament from LibDem MP Danny Alexander.
Alexander said: ‘People will be astonished that hundreds of thousands of
pounds of taxpayers’ money was spent on this bureaucratic exercise.
‘After the lost data debacle, I can think of lots of other words other than
“pink and fluffy” or “ambition” for the HMRC.’
An HMRC spokesman told the Mail: ‘If you improve the quality and
leadership in the department it benefits everyone from people who claim tax
credits to the Government.’