Revenue denies selling taxpayers' info

The Inland Revenue has denied reports its staff are abusing access to taxpayers' records.

Staff in the Department breached the Data Protection Act by 'sneaking-a-peek' at celebrities' tax information without a valid business reason for doing so, according to an internal newsletter at the Inland Revenue.

John Rickard, a Manager at the Inland Revenue's Human Resources Conduct and Discipline Section, said in the newsletter: "There have been a number of instances of celebrity browsing, or looking up the details of family or friends out of idle curiosity... there is also evidence that some people are using the information maliciously, for example finding out how much an ex-spouse earns and passing information to the Child Support Agency or even selling the information to outside agencies.

"This is clearly a breach of customer confidentiality and the Data Protection Act."

Newspapers followed up the article, alleging employees had sold information obtained from Revenue files.

Nick Montagu, Director of the Inland Revenue, subsequently sent a letter to newspaper editors denying this was the case.

In it he stated: "It is quite wrong for you to suggest that our staff have been selling confidential information about celebrities. The note which I am about to put out jointly with the heads of our two trades unions emphasises that any misuse of official information is a serious disciplinary matter.

"We know of nobody selling celebrity information. In one case only, two people sold information to a debt collection agency; they were prosecuted and sacked, and the agency was prosecuted. The overwhelming majority of our people are utterly professional in their use of information: the few who "celebrity browse" do so from curiosity - but will be left in no doubt that we treat it seriously and will take disciplinary action against them."

"The case where the two employees sold personal information to the debt collection agency happened six years ago," a spokesman said.

Inland Revenue staff that pull up taxpayers' details without a valid reason risk prosecution under the Data Protection Act.

The spokesman added there had been 226 disciplinary cases of computer misuse at the Revenue in 2001. Six of these cases ended in dismissal.