The latest update on the Agent Forum from HMRC is set out below.

“Digital Customer Support Services (DCSS) – Agent Forum (November 2019) Update

Agent Forum (AF)

As at the end of November 2019 the Forum had over 571 (up 171) on October re-registered Agent subscribers, of 1229 users signed up to the old forum. The Agent Forum re-platforming has been live for two months now and even though registrations have not reached the levels of its predecessor, participation and issues traffic have increased. The new ‘Knowledge Base’ feature is also increasingly popular and carries announcements and real time taxes information. In conjunction with our Issues Overview Group (IOG) stakeholder colleagues, we are developing procedures to identify high priority widespread issues to be taken forward for resolution with our internal technical specialist and communications partners. We continue to both build our Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) capability, recruiting from across HMRC to improve the quality and timeliness of issue resolution responses and focus on Agent Forum operations. Performance metrics carried forward from the previous platforms include over 160k views, 7000 posted messages on over 1400 current topics, all since July 2017; which are moderated daily with appropriate responses given, as determined by subject matter, related traffic generated, and referrals provided by line of business. In developing the new service, we will review what performance metrics are reported in future, as we better understand new functionality provided by the MS Dynamics platform.

The Digital Customer Support Services (DCSS) Agent Team is staffed by a Service Manager and 2.5 FTE Issues Resolution Managers (IRMs), who moderate and run the forum.”

END OF HMRC update