§ 28. Mr. Peter Reesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in view of the confidential nature of all information contained in returns of income made by taxpayers, he will give an assurance that such information will not be used as the basis of published statistics.
§ Mr. Patrick JenkinNo, Sir. But I can assure my hon. Friend that no information about the affairs of any individual taxpayer can be derived from the published statistics.
§ Mr. ReesWill my hon. Friend look again at the oath taken by members of the Inland Revenue, because it is widely thought that that oath would prevent their giving any information contained in a taxpayer's return to form the basis of published statistics? Does my hon. Friend appreciate that the feeling that taxpayers' confidential information is disclosed is likely to impair cordial relations between taxpayers and their inspectors?
§ Mr. JenkinI shall certainly look at the form to which my hon. Friend refers. However, the Inland Revenue has been publishing statistics based on tax returns for well over 100 years, and it would be inordinately expensive to collect the same statistics twice over in different forms.