HMRC denies asking the US for fraud help

gallery

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is denying claims by The Independent newspaper that it has gone ‘cap-in-hand’ to the US for help with fraud, explaining that they are simply participating in a pilot project offered to them by the US.

The Independent reported that HMRC is set to “hand over sensitive trade data to its US counterpart in return for access to a state-of-the-art fraud detection system, too expensive for the British agency to build” and that “in an embarrassing admission of HMRC capabilities, officials said that British techniques for analysing trade-based money laundering are sub-standard and a deal with the US is required ‘for HMRC to be effective.’”

The paper reported that HMRC was exchanging delicate trade information for access to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Data Analysis and Research for Trade Transparency System (DARTT), which is essentially an analytical database designed to detect and track fraud such as money laundering, tax evasion, and trade fraud.

Beryl St James, spokeswoman for HMRC, said that the reports have it all wrong.

“We didn’t go asking the US for help,” she said. “They offered to let us test [DARTT]. It’s simply a pilot project.”

St James said HMRC is just testing out the software, and will see where it goes after the test phase is over.

She also said worries about the security of the trade information being sent are unfounded.

“The trade information we’re giving the US is all anonymous, you can’t get any information about any specific people,” she said. “There are various conditions to the pilot program, including the rule that the US can’t give out any of the information to a third party, and when the pilot program is over, the US will destroy all the information.”

“Remember that the US and the UK have always worked together,” St James added. “The headline about going to them ‘cap-in-hand’ is just silly. I don’t know where [The Independent] got that information.”

In October of last year, HMRC lost two discs containing child benefit records of about 25 million people. The breach has caused huge amounts of backlash, and just last week, independent reports by Poynter and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) slammed HMRC for the breach, saying it was avoidable and the fault of HMRC.

The Information Commissioner’s Office also announced last week that it will be taking “formal enforcement action” against HMRC for the breach, as well as the Ministry of Defence for separate events.

Email to a friend

Print this page