Revenue and Customs: Complaints
The question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average length of time (b) for the Department to respond to HMRC complaints and (b) that a constituent was waiting for a response to their complaint was in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson
HMRC aims to get things right first time for its customers, but where this does not happen, it provides a straightforward and accessible complaints process to apologise and put things right.
The current average time taken to respond to HMRC complaints is 51.6 days.
The average time taken to respond to HMRC complaints in each of the last five years is set out below.
Year | Tier 1 Average Response Time (days) | Tier 2 Average Response Time (days) |
2025/26 | 40.0 | 55.7 |
2024/25 | 26.7 | 52.6 |
2023/24 | 35.7 | 95.2 |
2022/23 | 33.4 | 47.6 |
2021/22 | 29.6 | 47.1 |
A Tier 1 complaint is HMRC’s initial attempt to resolve a customer issue, while a Tier 2 complaint is a formal escalation where a different official conducts a fresh and final review if the customer remains dissatisfied.
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