Andrew Lawrence career summary

Andrew has worked in tax compliance for most of his career. He was an operational investigator in a number of specialist tax compliance roles between 1978 and 1999 including 12 years as a criminal investigator.

Between 1999 and 2005 Andrew was a policy advisor for the former Inland Revenue on compliance powers issues. In that role, and following the merger between the Contributions Agency and the Inland Revenue, he was responsible for legislation aligning the compliance powers that applied to National Insurance with those for Income Tax. Andrew was responsible for the compliance powers aspects of legislation to introduce Statutory Paternity and Adoption pay and subsequently for the complete revision of the legislation around the department’s compliance powers for other Statutory Payments.

Andrew worked with the Department for Agriculture on the legislation to establish the Gangmaster Licensing Authority and advised the Department and Ministers on the enforcement powers of the new agency. Andrew was a member of the Gangmaster Licensing Authority Board between 2004 and 2006.

Deputy Head of Criminal Policy for HM Revenue & Customs

Andrew took up this post in 2005/6, following the merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise to form HM Revenue & Customs, Andrew led the department’s policy response to the Cabinet Committee on Serious and Organised Crime working with Treasury Ministers to define and present the new department’s position. Subsequently Andrew led the HMRC contribution to the cross departmental Organised Crime Steering Group which supported the Cabinet Committee on Serious and Organised Crime

Between 2005 and 2009 Andrew was also a member of:-

The Serious and Organised Crime Programme Boards on Migration Crime, Human Trafficking, Identity Fraud and Cyber CrimeThe Home Office led Identity Fraud Steering Group The Government’s Migrant Workers Advisory Group

Andrew represented Treasury Ministers on the Inter Ministerial Group on Human Trafficking and the Criminality Information Ministerial Group

Andrew was for a short time the department’s representative at the OECD Working Party 8 sub group on tax crime and money laundering and was co author (with the Norwegian and Dutch authorities) of the FATF typology report on money laundering in sporting clubs. He was also the HMRC delegate to the founding conference of the United Nations Global Initiative on Forced Trafficking.

Head of Enforcement & Compliance Governance for HM Revenue & Customs

In early 2009 Andrew took up a new post as Head of Governance for the Enforcement & Compliance arm of HM Revenue & Customs. (Enforcement & Compliance comprises the operational directorates responsible for the majority of HMRC’s compliance work, its risk and intelligence function, its criminal investigation function and its debt management function)

In this role he was responsible for

Independent assurance of the department’s operational compliance and criminal justice functions ensuring that they are conducted within the law and in accordance with the department’s own guidance

Risk Management across the business, championing effective risk management at an operational level and leading risk management at management board level.

Information management and information security, working with the operational directorates to ensure that information is managed in a secure way and in accordance with mandatory legislative standards and reporting upward to the Department’s management board.

Andrew had joint responsibility with HMRC's Director of Security for oversight of the physical security of the department’s data, systems, assets, buildings and people.

Andrew regularly presented to visiting foreign delegations on different aspects of HMRC’s structure and it’s use of criminal and civil compliance powers. He also presented on behalf of HM Revenue & Customs in external forums. Highlights in recent years have been:-

The Cambridge Crime Symposium on the relationship between tax investigations and money laundering investigations.To the Norwegian Tax Authority on the structure of HMRC and it’s relationship to the wider criminal justice community in the UKTo the IRS in a national desktop broadcast on HMRC’s experiences of the impact of identity fraud

Andrew has also worked closely with the Norwegian tax authority, Skatteetaten, on the design and delivery of a secondment programme bringing Norwegian investigators into HMRC for extended secondments to share experience and skills.

Current activity

Andrew is available to take up opportunities to utilise and pass on the accumulated knowledge, skills and views developed in over 30 years involvement in specialist compliance, criminal investigation and corporate governance. Areas of particular interest are

Policy development and enforcement in the workplace particularly in relation to human trafficking, the hidden economy and illegal workingThe use of tax powers to disrupt criminal activity in the same areasThe use of tax powers in money laundering investihgationsTaking the mystery out of risk management and problem solvingEffective operational assurance at ground levelMaking international cooperation work

Contact details

Andrew Lawrence19 Maclean RdLondonSE23 1PB

E mail: ajlxwebmail@gmail.comPhone: (+44) 7976 265108