Dame Lesley Strathie dies, aged 56

Dame Lesley Strathie, who resigned as HMRC chief executive in November, died on Saturday 14 January from cancer that was initially diagnosed in July.

Having taken over the post from Paul Grey in 2008, she led the department through one of its most tumultuous periods, seeing through its ongoing transformation programme and a series of major staff cuts. She was made a dame in the Queen’s 2010 birthday honours.

A career civil servant, Dame Lesley was thrown into the public spotlight when details of the PAYE coding backlog caused by the introduction of the National Insurance and PAYE Service (NPS) came to light in the NAO’s report on the department’s 2009-10 accounts.

With front-page headlines (and posts on sites like AccountingWEB) calling for their resignations, Strathie and her senior colleagues were dragged before a series of Commons committee hearings.

MPs were not swayed by her assurances that the department was adequately resourcedin spite of the cuts and in early 2011 the Public Accounts Committee criticised Strathie and her team for their inability to pin down and fix the causes for the troubles caused by the botched NPS implementation.

Dame Lesley spent much of 2011 on sick leave and chairman Mike Clasper took charge of public-facing activities such as consultation around the proposed new agent strategy. Her illness was made public when she resigned in November. Many had predicted that permanent secretary for tax Dave Hartnett would succeed her, but his retirement in June 2012 was announced at the same time and UK Borders Agency Lin Homer was named as the department’s new CEO.

”I am deeply saddened by the news of Lesley's death,” said Hartnett. “She was a wonderful friend and colleague who worked hard all her life serving the public.

“She defended HMRC, often in the face of strong criticism, but always set herself high standards and expected the same of others. She will be greatly missed by everyone she worked with during her time at HMRC and by all former colleagues in other departments.”

According to The Daily Telegraph’s obituary, the banns for Dame Lesley’s second marriage were posted a week before she died.