§ Mr. Ashdownasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether an occupational requirement for the Inland Revenue national taxpayer tracing system has been completed; and if he will make a statement;
(2) if he will make a statement on the pilot scheme for the Inland Revenue national taxpayer tracing scheme including its duration and date of completion;
(3) if he will make a statement on the operation of advanced CAFS option in the Inland Revenue national taxpayer tracing system;
(4) if he will make a statement on the network of landline communications that will be used in the Inland Revenue national taxpayer tracing system;
(5) if he will make a statement on the functions for which the landline communications network of the Inland Revenue national taxpayer tracing system will be used.
§ Mr. Norman LamontThe national taxpayer tracing system forms part of the Inland Revenue's computerisation programme. It is an index of taxpayers' names, addresses, national insurance numbers and tax reference numbers. It will enable Inland Revenue staff to establish, where necessary, which local office deals with a taxpayer's affairs. Access will be limited to authorised Inland Revenue staff.
The system makes use of an ICL product called CAFS which provides a means of searching through large quantities of information quickly.
An experimental system, intended to evaluate the technology, is currently operating at centre 1, the office dealing with pay-as-you-earn for Scotland. The intention, subject to the success of the experiment, and a further pilot in the west Midlands starting in the spring, is to extend the system to the remaining tax districts in the United Kingdom during 1987, using the Inland Revenue data communications network.
This network provides links between local offices and computer centres, and between those centres. It is a private network, not accessible from outside the Inland Revenue.