Revenue pulls external e-mail project over security fears

A pilot scheme to allow 55,000 Inland Revenue employees to communicate with taxpayers using e-mail has been put on hold after internal security concerns were raised.

The decision to pull the trial was announced in the Revenue's in-house publication, 'Revenews,' saying: 'Plans to launch a nationwide service to communicate with customers using e-mail have been put on ice for the time being.'

Jo Cooke, who is overseeing the trial at the Revenue, told the magazine: "It is likely to be some time before e-mail can be used to communicate outside the department... a new trial is not expected to be launched now until next year."

The article continued: 'The trial, which involved 300 staff from 10 offices, found that thorny issues, mainly related to security, need to be sorted before taxpayers can exchange e-mails with Revenue offices.'

Miss Cooke also acknowledged there were additional issues, on top of security, holding up the scheme's progress.

She added: "Problems, which include e-mails getting stuck in the inbox and not being able to link later e-mails with earlier ones sent by the same person, also need to be overcome first."

The delaying of the trial has cast doubts over the Revenue's pledge to provide: 'an e-mail facility for customers to contact their Inland Revenue office by 2002'; one of its key objectives published in a paper in January this year.

It could also have knock on effects for its target 'to predominantly use telephone and e-mail to communicate with taxpayers by 2005'; also outlined in the same paper.

A Revenue spokesman told UKTECH: "This was a trial involving some 300 staff. The point of a pilot is to identify issues and iron out problems. We are now going to analyse the results of the pilot before deciding how to proceed. This is standard practice after a pilot and most certainly does not mean anyone has failed to deliver on anything. The security of customer data is paramount."

The spokesman would not discuss the security issues leading to the scheme's suspension, but the lack of a system to verify senders' identities against the e-mail address they use to enquire about personal financial data is thought to be a principal concern.

A spokesman from EDS said: "The project was a pilot and we are analysing the results from it before proceeding."

EDS, the company that maintains all of the Revenue's IT systems in the largest Government contract of its kind, worth £2.8 billion, had to withdraw the Revenue's online self-assessment service last month after customers reported they were able to access financial data that had been filed by other users.