HC Deb 15 November 2001 vol 374 c842W
Matthew Taylor

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which organisation owns the intellectual property rights to(a) the Inland Revenue proprietary system for processing tax returns, (b) the National Insurance Recording System 2 and (c) Customs and Excise proprietary systems; and if he will make a statement. [14742]

Dawn Primarolo

  1. (a) Inland Revenue—Under the strategic partnership contract with EDS, the Inland Revenue owns all the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) created as part of the delivery of IT services to the Department.
  2. (b) NIRS 2—The NIRS 2 deal with Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) is a Private Finance Initiative (PEI) and accordingly the IPRs were granted to Accenture.
  3. The PFI deal permits IR to have 'licence to use' the IPRs in perpetuity for a sliding scale of charge.
  4. (c) Customs and Excise—All IPRs in Customs and Excise propriety systems are owned by the Department.