ECSH121000 - Sharing information: within Economic Crime-Supervision (EC-S) and HMRC

Information sharing within the department is legally straightforward. Section 17(1) of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (CRCA) states: Information acquired by the Revenue and Customs in connection with a function may be used by them in connection with any other function.

This means that information obtained for tax purposes can be used for anti-money laundering purposes, and vice versa.

In practice, there are stipulations which apply.

Need to know principle (NTK)

When dealing with information and intelligence, HMRC officers must abide by the ‘Need to Know’ (NTK) principle. NTK applies to all information: for example, you must not search for your family members on sensitive HMRC systems; you do not have an NTK to access that information.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)