What was your highlight of 2025?
My key professional moment was transitioning from being permanent secretary at the Scottish Government to becoming HMRC’s chief executive this year.
I was privileged to serve three first ministers in Scotland, and I’m now grateful for the opportunity to lead HMRC while based in Edinburgh, as we make more progress with Places for Growth. HMRC serves all nations and regions of the UK, and we've delivered hard-earned progress this year which I’m very proud of, and I’m recognising more potential too.
I've appreciated the opportunity to visit our regional centres, from Glasgow to Newcastle, Liverpool to Leeds, and Belfast to Stratford, seeing the vast range of important work our teams are doing. This includes enhancing customer experience as we recovered service standards, tackling fraud, improving trade flows, and accelerating digital transformation (around 80% of our customer interactions are now digital, well on our way to our 90% target). Debt is also now forecast to fall in each year of this Spending Review period.
We've focused a lot on connecting to purpose, and on increasing the engagement of our people. This is underpinned by our commitment to embedding our Charter and working in the open. I think we're establishing the conditions we need for successful transformation.
We've published a stretching roadmap for reform and made a good start with delivery, with thanks to our partners for all their support. And we've worked well with HM Treasury to deliver significant fiscal events, with the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasting a material reduction in the Tax Gap in the years ahead. We’re determined to drive it down to a record low if we can.
As always, it's clear the power is in the team, and my highlight has been connecting with teams and partners across the UK and supporting them to improve outcomes, engagement and accelerate transformation. We need to work in the open and co-create reform, empowering our teams to accelerate delivery. I've seen loads of lovely examples which gives me confidence for the future – there's certainly plenty of goodwill and potential.
What was the hardest part of being a leader in 2025?
HMRC delivers critical national infrastructure and collects essential revenue that funds the UK’s public services. We literally fund the nation, and it's important that we can articulate this purpose with pride. That’s a serious responsibility and inevitably it comes with constant challenges – including managing a changing global threat environment, and repelling, and investigating, organised crime attacks.
Early in my tenure, we dealt with the consequences of an attack on the PAYE system and an investigation which ultimately led to arrests at home and abroad. It was a hard landing in the hard reality of operating the UK tax system at scale.
As always, there are bumps in the road, and the reaction to these shocks is hard to handle with care. But we stepped through it, working with our partners, notifying our customers, and investing further in Fraud Prevention and Disaster Recovery capabilities.
When we have setbacks, we must reflect, learn, and improve; and in doing so, remember to thank those who work around the clock to protect customers and the tax system.
I learned a lot about leading with values in Scotland, trying to lead with more empathy and kindness – something I'm always trying to cling onto, particularly in the harder moments. So, at HMRC we’re trying to nurture a kinder environment for colleagues to thrive in – investing in our capabilities and supporting the wellbeing of our teams, as we develop our resilience for the future.
What are the main challenges facing your department in the coming year?
In July we published our Transformation Roadmap, which sets out what we’re going to deliver over this Spending Review period to modernise the UK tax, customs and valuations systems.
We’ve got the investment and stretching targets, so this year will be about the hard yards of delivery, getting all our projects and programmes set up for success. Some will involve change for customers – like the rollout of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment from April – and some will involve shifts in the way we work, such as our CoPilot rollout and AI adoption into our business as usual. So, we’ll need to be laser focused on supporting customers, building capabilities, and co-creating with partners. Lots of challenges and opportunities for HMRC in the years ahead!
Which celebrity or historical figure would you choose to turn on the Christmas lights in your town – and why?
My daughters are Harry Potter fans, so I would pick Professor Albus Dumbledore. If he can turn on the streetlights in Privet Drive using just a wand, I'm pretty sure he could do something similarly magical for us here in Scotland. Having said that, Princes St is looking glorious at this time of year, if a touch chilly!