Richard Broadbent, Chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise, today announced a major restructuring of his senior management team. This is the start of a process of change within Customs and Excise to make it best able to meet the needs of those with whom it does business in the modern world.
Richard Broadbent, Chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise, today announced a major restructuring of his senior management team. This is the start of a process of change within Customs and Excise to make it best able to meet the needs of those with whom it does business in the modern world.
In a message to all of the department’s staff, Mr Broadbent said:
“The purpose of these changes is to create a small team to be responsible for managing the department and to remove overlapping responsibilities. This will create a framework for rapid decision making and implementation of decisions.”
Mr Broadbent added:
“We are ambitious for the department and these changes will give us the best prospect of building on its skills and achievements in a challenging world.”
The department’s Board will in future focus on strategic issues while the management of the department will fall to a new six strong Management Committee. (The details of the new management structure are set out in the following note for editors.) Mr Broadbent explained that the Management Committee’s aims will be to:
– create clarity of purpose and direction;
– set priorities and align resources accordingly;
– minimise process and ensure resources focused on front-line effort;
– build and develop the department’s skills;
– achieve effective communication.
The Paymaster General has approved the changes.
Notes For Editors
1. For further information please see the following message from the Chairman to all staff.
Senior Management Changes
From today the way the department is managed and organised will start to change. A new management structure is being put in place to clarify accountabilities and streamline decision making.
The following changes in senior management and organisation at the centre, which have been approved by the Paymaster General, are being made with immediate effect:
A new Management Committee is being formed which will take responsibility for the management of the department. The Management Committee will work closely as a team and meet frequently. Richard Broadbent will chair the Management Committee. Its members will be Mike Eland (returning from the Home Office on promotion to Grade 2), Terry Byrne, Mike Hanson (on promotion to Grade 3), Ray McAfee, Mike Norgrove and Alan Paynter.
The diagram at Appendix 1 sets out the specific responsibilities of each Management Committee member. Mike Eland will be in charge of Policy (covering all taxes and Customs); Mike Hanson in charge of Strategy covering all central functions; Alan Paynter in charge of Logistics; and Terry Byrne, Ray McAfee and Mike Norgrove will be in charge of Outputs, focusing on fraud, regional management and service delivery respectively.
The Board will focus on strategic issues. It will be responsible for ensuring the strategic agenda is clear and being advanced, and for approving the annual plans and budget proposed by the Management Committee. In addition to the Management Committee, an Audit Committee and an Appointments Committee will report to the Board. The membership of these committees is set out in Appendix 2. All other Board Committees are abolished.
A new Regional Management Committee is being formed, chaired by Ray McAfee and consisting of the Collectors. The Chairman will also attend meetings. The committee will meet once a month. Its purpose is to maximise two-way communication and co-ordination between collections Customs and Excise regions) and the centre which will channel all major initiatives through the committee. All other outfield co-ordinating committees are abolished.
Timothy Walker will be leaving the Department to take up another post in the Civil Service. Timothy has played a particularly important role in developing the department’s agenda for the future. We are indebted to him and we wish him well in his new role.
David Howard will be retiring after 31 years service with the department during which he has contributed to many different areas of the department’s work. David retires with our best wishes for the future.
Tony Rawsthorne is returning to the Home Office, completing his secondment a few months earlier than previously planned, after two and a half years in which he has led the development of our activities in Customs work, particularly our international services and links.
We are announcing today an open competition to put in place a successor to Alan Paynter who is approaching retirement and who will work in tandem with his successor when appointed before retiring later this year.
Martin Brown will become Head of Tax Practice in the proposed policy group under Mike Eland and will be responsible for developing our professional expertise and technical guidance for all indirect taxes.
Richard Allen will take on full time responsibility for Human Resources in which role he will work closely with the Chairman to review and reform all aspects of appointments, appraisal, recruitment and training.
The Solicitor’s Office is not directly affected by these changes. David Pickup will attend Management Committee meetings as and when issues with legal implications are being discussed.
A number of divisions are being moved between directorates or restructured to match the new streamlined management structure. Immediate changes are set out in Appendix 3. Further consequential changes to align fully divisional and branch/team responsibilities with the department’s new structure will be completed by the end of May.
The purpose of these changes is to create a small team responsible to the Board for managing the department and to remove overlapping responsibilities and accountabilities. The Management Committee will have the following objectives:
– to create clarity of direction;
– to ensure clear priorities are set and resources aligned accordingly;
– to minimise unnecessary process and ensure resources are focused on front-line effort;
– to build and develop our skills, including management skills;
– to communicate effectively internally and externally.
These changes are a beginning. We are ambitious for the department and want to ensure not only that we deliver the outputs required of us by Ministers but that we develop and build our skills, and communicate them to the outside world, so that we are in the front row when new relevant initiatives are contemplated.
This will not be easy and it will not mean a quiet life. We will need to be responsive, flexible and decisive to meet the challenges and agendas thrown up by the world. The new structure creates a framework for the clear, rapid decision making and the unambiguous implementation of decisions necessary for this task.
I look forward to working with the senior management team and with all of you in taking this forward.