HC Deb 15 March 1984 vol 56 cc216-7W
Mr. Cohen

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are, in relation to the computer system of the Inland Revenue dealing with PAYE (a) the purpose or purposes for which personal data are held, (b) the source or sources from which data are obtained, (c) the descriptions of any person or organisation to whom personal data have been disclosed, including the number of such disclosures over the last convenient period of time, (d) the Departments that have, or intend to have, terminal access to the computer system and (e) the lists of the indices held on the computer system, and the number of entries in each index.

Mr. Moore

(a) The Inland Revenue's computer systems dealing with PAYE hold personal data for the purpose of the assessment and collection of income tax and the collection of class 1 national insurance contributions.

(b) The sources of the personal data held are as follows:

  1. (i) taxpayers and their appointed agents;
  2. (ii) employers (including, in the case of benefits paid to the unemployed, the Department of Employment)and their appointed agents; and
  3. (iii) other bodies submitting information under statutory requirement or otherwise.

(c) Personal data are disclosed:

  1. (i) to the person to whom they relate or to his appointed agent;
  2. (ii) for the purpose of appeal proceedings, and for the legal recovery of PAYE income tax and class 1 national insurance contributions by offices of collectors of taxes; and
  3. (iii) for other purposes within the terms of part III of schedule 1 to the Taxes Management Act 1970 or other statutory authority.

Statistics of the number of disclosures are not available.

(d) Terminal access is restricted to Inland Revenue staff engaged in the operation of PAYE and the collection of class 1 national insurance contributions.

(e) The centre 1 computer system, which deals with the tax affairs of employees of Scottish employers, holds an index of approximately 80,000 employers and an index of approximately 3,700,000 taxpayers. The accounts offices at Cumbernauld and Shipley each hold an index of employers with approximately 600,000 and 500,000 entries, respectively. No index is held at present on the proposed national computer system for PAYE.