Daljit Rehal has been appointed as chief digital and information officer at HM Revenue and Customs.
Rehal (pictured) replaces interim CDIO director general Mark Denney, who played a leading role in the search for his successor, and joins HMRC after nearly nine years at international energy company Centrica as global digital and data services director. He previously held roles at TalkTalk, Virgin Media, Hutchison 3G, 7C and KPMG.
One of his priorities will involve overseeing HMRC’s Securing Our Technical Future Programme, which involves migrating from existing data centres to cloud based hosting or the Crown Hosting service, along with a review of any vulnerabilities in the legacy IT estate of more than 600 services.
Another will be the extension of the Making Tax Digital programme to more businesses and individuals filing self-assessment returns.
Earlier in the year, Jim Harra, HMRC’s chief executive and first permanent secretary, said the estate is costly to run and lacks agility, and that the programme should help to generate more cost-effective arrangements with suppliers and provide a more resilient and flexible infrastructure.
Tech and business change
Harra said of Rehal: “His passion for leading change focused on customer outcomes and breadth of experience in both technology and business is particularly relevant for us at this time as we continue to expand our online services to business and personal customers and implement the digital strategy we’ve developed over the past two years.
“I would also like to pay tribute and thank Mark Denney for his work as interim director general. His work in the last few months in delivering the coronavirus support schemes has been a particular highlight and his leadership has helped the department deliver for millions of people affected by the pandemic”.
Rehal will take up the role on 14 September. He said: “I’m really excited to be joining HMRC at a time of such unique challenges and opportunities and continuing the journey to becoming a truly modern and progressive tax authority fit for the 21st century.
“I look forward to building on the excellent work of my predecessors Mark Denney and Jacky Wright.”
