Tax hotline allows MPs and VIPs to skip the queues at HMRC

Call-waiting times to ‘Public Department 1’ are 12 times faster while public must wait 22 minutes to speak to an adviser, report finds

MPs, some civil servants and other high-profile figures are having their calls to HM Revenue and Customs answered up to 12 times faster than the general public because they are able to access a “VIP” hotline.

As a report found that customer service levels at HMRC have sunk to an “all-time low”, with users regularly encountering long call-waiting times, it has emerged that certain individuals are able to beat the queues by using a little-known fast-track helpline called “Public Department 1” (PD1).