HMRC proposes selling taxpayers' financial data to third parties

Under proposals currently being considered by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), anonymised financial data from taxpayers could be purchased by third party private companies, researchers and public bodies. Last week, a spokesman from HMRC stated that ‘no firm decisions’ had been taken on the issue, but that the confidentiality of taxpayers’ data would remain of the utmost importance. Despite such reassurances, former Conservative MP, David Davis, has branded the proposals as ‘borderline insane’. Indeed, HMRC does not have an unblemished record when it comes to dealing with confidential data. In 2007, HMRC lost computer disks containing confidential details of approximately 25 million child benefit recipients.

According to HMRC documents, plans for ‘charging options’ are being considered, meaning that firms may be required to pay HMRC to access the data. Consultations for the relaxation of HMRC data-sharing rules began last July, but concerns have been raised over such plans in light of a similar and currently suspended NHS initiative proposing the sharing of anonymised NHS medical records.

Speaking to the Guardian about HMRCs data-sharing proposals, David Davis said, ‘The officials who drew this up clearly have no idea of the risks to data in an electronic age’. Meanwhile, Emma Carr, deputy director of civil rights campaign group, Big Brother Watch, has said, ‘Given the huge uproar about similar plans for medical records, you would have hoped HMRC would have learned that trying to sneak plans like this under the radar is not the way to build trust or develop good policy’. A spokesman from HMRC, however, stated, ‘HMRC would only share data where this would generate clear public benefits, and where there are robust safeguards in place’.