SDLTM80660 - Compliance: Rights and obligations

Communications: Confidentiality: Liaison and enquiries

All HM Revenue & Customs officials are required to make a solemn declaration of secrecy.

This declaration binds a compliance caseworker not to disclose any information received in the execution of their duties, except for the purpose of those duties or for the purpose of a prosecution relating to an HM Revenue & Customs offence, or in such circumstances as may be authorised by law.

This secrecy requirement covers all details about all purchasers, including their private and business addresses, their occupation and their financial circumstances.

It is a criminal offence for any member of staff to disclose any information held about any matter relevant to tax or duty in relation to any identifiable person, unless

• there is lawful authority to make a disclosure
• the purchaser or other person concerned authorises the disclosure
• the information has already been lawfully made available to the public

From time to time information might be requested from people outside the Department. Such liaison is a vital part of a compliance caseworker’s job, but under no circumstances can information be obtained on an exchange basis.

It must be realised that on occasion confidential material might be asked for and a compliance caseworker must be prepared always to refuse.

Particular care should be exercised when making enquiries about an individual. If the person to whom a compliance caseworker is talking knows they are an HM Revenue & Customs employee, they may draw the conclusion that the purchaser is under enquiry, and they will want to know why.

This is a difficult position. The goodwill of those providing information is relied upon. The compliance caseworker should be frank and make it clear from the outset that nothing can be given in return.

Under no circumstances should a compliance caseworker pretend to be anyone other than who they are when obtaining information.

The compliance caseworker should particularly beware of inadvertently providing information about other transactions.

Release of confidential information cannot be authorised at any level. Even if the details requested seem trivial or of little significance, A compliance caseworker must not take the attitude that it is safe to disclose as no harm will be done.

Confidentiality must not be breached under any circumstances, and it must be understood that any breach constitutes both an offence under FA89/S182 and a breach of a compliance caseworker’s declaration.

Although it may be tempting to offer information in exchange for something that might help to prove evasion, it must be remembered that everyone in the Department operates under strict rules of secrecy.

A compliance caseworker may not disclose information to a third party, unless they are authorised to do so by statute.

(This text has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)