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Timms to respond to data protection protest

Stephen Timms MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, is being forced to reply to a formal complaint about breaches of the Data Protection Act by HM Revenue & Customs.

Vince Cable MP, Treasury spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, has written to the minister expressing his concern that ‘HMRC have not learnt the necessary lessons and still do not understand the core issue of data security’.

This followed the news, reported in the January issue of Payroll World (page 5) that some Self Assessment and PAYE notices and statements had been sent to the wrong agents in summer 2009. At the time the Conservative MP Richard Bacon said in the Commons: ‘It would appear to be an obvious breach of one of the principles of data protection, which is that information must be securely kept.’

In the recent letter, Dr Cable says: ‘The area I am concerned by is listed under “Current Issues” on the following webpage: (link url="http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers-bulletin/bulletin33/paye-new.htm">http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/employers-bulletin/bulletin33/paye-new.htm.

Some notices and statements have been sent to the wrong agents – this appears to indicate that details of individuals’ income and income tax liability have been sent to a recipient who has no right to see such information.’

He demanded a swift response from Mr Timms on the following points: ‘I would like to know how many records were affected, what data was sent, who the records were sent to, when the breach occurred, what steps have been taken to ensure a further breach does not occur and finally what changes are envisaged to be made to stop any future data losses.’

The reply from Mr Timms is expected next week.

Payroll World - 09/02/2010