Nicholas Montagu

Who is Nicholas Montagu?

Sir Nicholas Lionel John Montagu KCB is a retired British Civil Servant. He was Chairman of the Inland Revenue from 1997 to 2004, before its merger with Her Majesty's Customs and Excise to create Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in 2005.

Nick Montagu was educated at Rugby School and New College, Oxford, where he was Secretary of the Oxford Union, President of New College Junior Common Room and obtained a double First in classics, ancient history and philosophy. Immediately after leaving Oxford in 1966, he became a lecturer in philosophy at Reading University, remaining there until 1974, when he joined the UK Civil Service as a Direct Entry Principal.

Montagu served over the next 30 years in a number of government Departments, including Health and Social Security, the Cabinet Office, Transport and Social Security. He was involved, as a civil servant, in a number of key policies for both Labour and Conservative governments, including the establishment of executive agencies, major pension reforms and the privatisation of the railway. In 1997 he was appointed Chairman of the Inland Revenue through an open competition.

Over the next seven years, Montagu led the Inland Revenue through the greatest changes in its history, as it became a social department responsible for paying out what had previously been social security benefits and led the rest of Whitehall in the development of electronic services. He changed the culture of the Department, making it more outward-facing and responsive to its customers, and took a particular interest in diversity, for which he became Civil Service Champion. During his time the Revenue won numerous awards for its achievements in this field. In his last year as Chairman, Montagu became embroiled in two controversies, the first when the systems installed by IT firm EDS for the new tax credits system failed to work, and the second over the joint sale, with Customs, of the Revenue's estate to a company headquartered in Bermuda. This decision, required by the Treasury as part of the 1998 public spending settlement, was based on legal advice that to have excluded the company would have been illegal under European law [oral evidence to Treasury Select Committee Sub-Committee June 2003 http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmtreasy/uc834-i/uc83402.htm]; it was subsequently described by the National Audit Office as a model for other departments and a commercially sound deal ["PFI: the STEPS Deal" HC: 530 2003-2004 ISBN 0102928045].