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The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) should have gone further in its report, HM Revenue and Customs: Compliance and Enforcement Programme, and highlighted the need to invest in HMRC in order to collect more tax, ARC said yesterday. ARC - the Association of Revenue and Customs - is the union representing senior HMRC staff and is part of the FDA.

ARC President Gareth Hills said: "The PAC is right to say that job losses at HMRC undermine its ability to collect tax. But it is a shame that PAC has not gone further and echoed the consistent and credible arguments put forward by ARC throughout its Defeat the Deficit campaign about the need to invest in HMRC to collect more tax.

"The PAC report says that a further £1.1bn taxes could have been collected but for job losses at HMRC. ARC has shown that investing in professional staff could generate many times that amount - money desperately needed to ease the pain of deficit reduction and to encourage much needed growth."

Notes for editors

1. The Association of Revenue and Customs (ARC) is a union representing senior staff in HM Revenue and Customs, including tax inspectors, accountants, lawyers, managers and other leading professionals. ARC represents around 2,600 members in HMRC at grade 7 and above, and also trainees in grade 7 entry schemes. It is also a section of the FDA.

2. The FDA is the trade union and professional body representing 19,000 of the UK's senior civil and public servants. Our members include policy advisors, senior managers, tax inspectors, economists, statisticians, accountants, special advisers, government lawyers, diplomats, crown prosecutors and NHS managers.

3. The FDA (formerly the First Division Association) should be referred to simply as "The FDA" and can be described as "the senior public servants' union".

4. ARC's Defeat the Deficit campaign was launched in 2010. Being Bold - ARC's report on how the tax gap could be closed - can be found at http://arctheunion.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/arc_beingbold_20102.pdf.

5. For further information contact:

• Gareth Hills, ARC President, tel: 020 7401 5555 or 07870 592356.
• Oliver Rowe, FDA Communications Manager, tel: 020 7401 5588 or 07590 838696.