Transport for London CIO lands HM Revenue & Customs job

Phil Pavitt moving in September to run the IT that collects our taxes

HMRC is a large user of IT

Transport for London (TfL) chief information officer (CIO) Phil Pavitt has been appointed as the new CIO of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).

He will take over from interim CIO Deepak Singh, who has been in the role for 18 months and oversaw the successful extension of self-assessment tax forms online.

Singh will stay in his present role until September and will work with Pavitt to ensure a smooth takeover, according to HMRC.

A spokesman would not confirm whether he would stay within the organisation after September or not.

HMRC is one of the biggest government users of technology and has a £2.8bn IT services contract with Capgemini.

Pavitt led a major overhaul of the IT function at TfL and has previously been the CIO of OneTel and NTL.

A spokesman for HMRC said Pavitt will support the work of about a fifth of the Civil Service population, and will be tasked with further transforming customer service and enhancing the efficiency of tax administration.

At a CIO networking event last month, Singh urged CIOs to use the current economic crisis to develop their personal brands.

"Out of this economic crisis will be born the next generation of IT leaders, " he said.