SPM60360 – Disputes, Decisions, Reviews and Appeals - The formal decision

Confidentiality

All HMRC staff are under a strict legal duty of confidentiality. Detailed guidance on this duty of confidentiality is available on the Intranet.

Take care to avoid the disclosure of any personal information in a Notice of Decision which is copied to other interested parties. This includes the disclosure of personal information to the employer about an employee.

Where a need arises to mention personal information, because it is relevant to the decision, and the notice is copied to other interested parties

• exclude personal information from the Notice of Decision
• put the excluded information in the explanatory letter that is issued to the person, usually the employee, to whom it relates.

Where an SSP/SMP decision is made on the basis of medical evidence supplied by a doctor, ensure that it is only released to the employer with the employee’s consent and that “potentially harmful medical evidence’ is not released to the employee or employer. An example of such evidence would be a diagnosis of a terminal illness where the individual may not have been told.