HMRC missing a deadline - surely not?

HM Revenue and Customs has missed a key deadline which required it to create teams of cyber crime investigators and launch initiatives to counter the increased threat of web attacks on the authority's system and customers.

In its structural reform plan progress report for December 2011, HMRC said that work on the project should have been completed by November 2011, but recruitment activity is still ongoing and the scheme will now not be completed until February.

This serves to prove that despite unemployment rates spiralling, the country does not have the appropriate people trained and capable of fulfilling this vitally important role in protecting taxpayers data.  Perhaps they will impose financial penalties on themselves as they do so readily with taxpayers who miss deadlines or do HMRC believe that they have a "reasonable excuse"?