Exclusive: HMRC names new CIO

Transport for London (TfL) CIO Phil Pavitt has been appointed the new CIO of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

He will take up the £180,000 per year position in September, where he will oversee 1,400 staff and a budget of £1bn, making the HMRC one of the largest IT departments in Europe.

In the new role Pavitt, who featured on silicon.com's CIO50 list of the UK's most influential CIOs last year, will be expected to "transform customer service and improve compliance with the tax system, as well as enhance the efficiency of tax administration", according to the original advert on the civil service's recruitment website.

As HMRC CIO, Pavitt will also oversee the £2.8bn Aspire (Acquiring Strategic Partners for the Inland Revenue) IT services contract with Capgemini, one of the UK's largest outsourcing deals.

Former T-Mobile executive Deepak Singh has been acting CIO at the HMRC since the previous incumbent Steve Lamey was promoted to COO at the HMRC in October 2007.

A spokesman for HMRC said Singh will be "working closely with Pavitt to ensure a smooth transition".

At TfL Pavitt has been involved with work to save £400m by restructuring its technology and building common platforms and applications across business units.

He also managed the tech move of about 2,500 staff from TfL's surface transport business unit into a single building near London Bridge, which saw the number of servers supporting the unit slashed by three-quarters.

A TfL spokesman said Pavitt will continue in his post with the transport body until September.