Tax staff breach data security

[gkd_uk]

More than 600 staff at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have been disciplined for accessing personal or sensitive data, it has been revealed.

In a Commons written reply, Treasury Financial Secretary Jane Kennedy said that in many cases the penalty for staff was dismissal.

There were 238 people disciplined in 2005, 180 in 2006, and 192 in 2007.

The secretary was responding to a question from shadow home affairs spokesman James Brokenshire.

Ms Kennedy said the figures showed "the strength of HMRC's disciplinary procedures".

The numbers represented less than 1% of HMRC staff, she added.


Ms Kennedy said HMRC has a "strict policy forbidding staff to access customer records unless they have a legitimate business need.

"Breaches of this policy are taken seriously and any breach will result in the commencement of disciplinary proceedings.

"Each case is treated on its merits but in many cases the disciplinary penalty for breach in dismissal."

HMRC was formed in April 2005, when the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise departments merged.


Source BBC

 

[bochgoch]

The numbers represented less than 1% of HMRC staff, she added.

...oh, that's OK then!

 

[OldWelshGuy]

yes, only 1 in 100 people working in the most sensitve department in the civil service ,can not be trusted. What a great result :sweat:

 

[bochgoch]

Treasury Financial Secretary Jane Kennedy who made that statement will probably now get a large bonus as she managed to keep the figures down to 'only' 1%...

What's wrong with civil servants in this country? (Often not civil & certainly don't see themselves as anyone's servant)

 

[OldWelshGuy]

people are given access to records and told they can only access the data if they need to. PEOPLE ARE DUMB!

Security levels in goverment departments are crap. they use each others logins etc, and treat the sensitive data cutomer records like bloody facebook accounts!

What wories me more is that more and more UK companies are sending our dat to india to be processed, and the moment it leaves the Uk, the data protection act no longer applies.

I will not deal with a company that allows my financial data to be viewed out side of the UK & US, as the laws everywhere else are piss poor.

I am NOT having a go at india etc, i certainly am not being racist, but there have been too many cases of sensitive dat sent to india, ending up being readily available on the net to buy