Commentary on Clauses Section 1: The Commissioners
34.This section establishes a body of Commissioners to be known as the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) - or as Comisynwyr Cyllid a Thollau Ei Mawrhydi in Welsh. The section sets out the Commissioners’ status and tenure.
35.Subsection (1) provides for the Crown to appoint Commissioners to hold office in accordance with the terms of their appointment in the Letters Patent. Such Letters Patent for the Commissioners of the predecessor departments traditionally designated one Commissioner as chairman. It is intended to continue that practice.
36.Subsections (4) and (5) provide that the Commissioners act on behalf of the Crown and are civil servants. This continues the arrangements for the predecessor departments, and it is intended that one of the Commissioners will be appointed by the Prime Minister to be Permanent Secretary of HMRC, and by the Treasury to be Principal Accounting Officer. In practice this will be the Commissioner designated chairman in the appointment Letters Patent.