The department’s strict duty of confidentiality prevents
you from disclosing the whereabouts of missing persons to third
parties.
This includes forwarding letters, including from debt
collection agencies, solicitors, the police or any other
organisation. If a person contacts you asking you to forward a
letter you must contact the sender and inform them that you cannot
forward the letter (subject to the exception below).
One particular situation where this commonly occurs is
requests from the Salvation Army’s Family Tracing Service. If
a letter is received from the Salvation Army contact Information
Strategy (see
IDG90100), who will provide advice.
The police can ask HMRC to supply certain information under
the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, see
IDG60150.
