HMRC tax record special categories - initial FOIA request
The HM Revenue & Customs website is not easy to navigate, if you are looking for how to submit a Freedom of Information Act Request - they really must do better.
There is an FOIA page which can only be found after using the search facility,
However, it appears, that two and a bit years on from the supposedly seamless merger between the former Inland Revenue and the Customs & Excise departments, there is still no consolidated Freedom of Information Act Publication Scheme.
Freedom of Information Act 2000 HM Revenue & Customs Publication Scheme
There is a strange, unfriendly (no Preview, just Submit) online comments form, which appears to email a "Michael Armstrong", rather than a generic FOIA request response team (you need to click on the "Michael Armstrong "link itself, rather than otherwise you get an error message)
There also seems to be a legacy email address for Inland Revenue FOIA requests, which may or may not work.
Our FOIA request below, asks some Questions about the discriminatory, and possibly counterproductive practice of having specially marked categories of tax codes and tax returns, supposedly only for Westminster politicians and celebrities, but not for the rest of us, or even for people whose lives would be genuinely at risk if their home address details were revealed..
See HMRC tax record security only for a minority of the privileged, but not for the rest of us
Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs
Freedom of Information Unit
Room BP5001
Dunstanburgh House
Longbenton
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE98 1ZZ
Also via webform
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/asplib/mailer/mailer_form.asp?dpt=MICHAEL_ARMSTRONG
to Michael Armstrong.
Also via email to: ccp.disclosure@ir.gsi.gov.uk
Monday 28th January 2008Dear Sirs,
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please disclose the following information:
Regarding the story in the Daily Telegraph newspaper of Saturday 26th January 2008 about the security, privacy and confidentiality of tax returns:
"Online tax system 'too risky' for the famous"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/26/ntax126.xml
and the Parliamentary Oral Answer given by the Financial Secretary to HM Treasury Jane Kennedy during Treasury Oral Answers on Thursday 24th January 2008:
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2008-01-24a.1622.0&s=speaker%3A10503#g1626.1
Commons Hansard 24 Jan 2008 : Column 1626
"The hon. Gentleman raises a fair point. There are categories of individual for whom security is a higher priority. [Hon. Members: "Oh!"] Not just Members of Parliament-there are several categories of people in that position, and HMRC does not have the facilities for them to file online. However, it is working to see what can be done to change that in future."
1) Please list these special "categories of individual for whom security is a higher priority".2) Approximately how many people are in each special category ?
3) Who exactly makes the decision to put someone into one of these special categories ?
4) When, if ever, is an individual removed from such a special category ?
5) Does a special category extend to an individual's family as well ?
6) How long has this policy of special categories been in place ?
7) Who exactly authorised this special category policy ?
8) How exactly does adding an extra digit to a taxcode or other special markings to a paper tax return, make it less of a target for human snooping or electronic sniffing of the data once it is in digital form ? Surely this contravenes the well established security principles for handling "sensitive" data whilst it is sharing common office or electronic network infrastructure i.e. that it should be indistinguishable from the rest of the data or documents, to reduce the temptation to casual snoopers ?
9) What about the previous 24 year tax record history of an individual, before they became a "celebrity" or politician etc. ?
10) Are these special category tax records included in the datasets handed over, through the statutory gateway, to the DWP Longitudinal Study ?
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/longitudinal_study/ic_longitudinal_study.asp
11) What is the approximate annual cost of the extra infrastructure and personnel resources needed to handle these special categories ?
If these are deemed to be too many Questions, then please advise how this FOIA request may best be modified, according to your duty under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 Section 16 Duty to provide advice and assistance.
Please provide the information, ideally by publishing it on your public world wide website, or alternatively by email.
Ideally this should *not* be in the form of a "copy and paste locked" Adobe .pdf file, or similar, attachment.
In the unlikely event that this information is not already available in a standard electronic format, then please explain the reasons why, when you provide the information in another format.
If you are proposing to make a charge for providing the information requested, please provide full details in advance, together with an explanation of any proposed charge.
If you decide to withhold any of the information requested, you should clearly explain why you have done so in your response, by reference to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 legislation.
If your decision to withhold is based upon an evaluation of the Public Interest, then you should clearly explain which public interests you have considered, and why you have decided that the public interest in maintaining the exception(s) outweighs the public interest in releasing the information.
I look forward to receiving the information requested as soon as possible, and in any event, within the statutory 20 working days from receipt of this email i.e. by Tuesday 11th March 2008
Yours Sincerely,