Just a quick note on “Staff at HMRC appear to have felt threatened by the change.”

Some staff at HMRC certainly felt that GDS had little respect for their expertise and operated in a bullying manner eg: from

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https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/03/14/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-content-design/#comment-53375

“As somebody who works for HMRC and has been involved in the fact check process I find your comment disingenuous and unfair to HMRC. To simply pass the blame to HMRC for the inaccuracy of GOV.UK content is plain wrong.

I’ve been involved in lengthy discussions with GDS via an HMRC category manager about the content on GOV.UK that I have an interest in and have been met with an obstinate refusal on the part of GDS to reconsider, as the changes that make the content factually correct doesn’t meet the rigid GDS style guide. I’ve correspondence from GDS telling me that we can’t say ‘may’ – we have to say ‘will’, even when ‘will’ isn’t the case.

I won’t be giving my real name or email address as experience tells me this will cause me nothing but trouble. Sad, but true.”

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https://gds.blog.gov.uk/2014/03/14/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-content-design/