HM Revenue & Customs’ core purpose is to make sure that money is available to fund the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support. Our vision is to close the tax gap, make our customers feel that the tax system is simple for them and even-handed, and to be seen as a highly professional and efficient organisation.

The indicators and information strategy in the transparency section of our Business Plan 2011-15 (pages 10-16) have been published for consultation.

Business plan 2011-15 (PDF 153k)

This consultation seeks feedback from our key stakeholders, including members of the public. This is to ensure that the transparency section of the Business Plan contains the most relevant, useful and timely information.

To give us your views and comments, please contact: kai.transparencyconsultationmailbox@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

The consultation ends on 31 January 2011. Our final plan will go live in April 2011.

You may wish to comment on whether we:

• have selected the right basket of indicators and measures, and explained their meaning clearly in order to give you a helpful high-level picture of spending and performance
• could provide additional data or data broken down in a different way, to help you hold us to account or meet your information needs (subject to the collection burden) – if so, please let us know how this would help you
• have defined our commitment to publishing data clearly
• can do more to engage you in our drive for greater transparency, and if so how

With regard to customer and personal taxpayer information, we recognise the privileged access we have and we will protect it. We will ensure that we do not publish data which would inhibit our ability to perform our functions or provide those who pervert the tax system with information that undermines our ability to hold them to account and ensure the system is seen as fair.

A summary of responses will be published after the consultation ends.

Information provided in response to this consultation, including personal information, may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (these are primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004).

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the FOIA, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Department.

The Department will process your personal data in accordance with the DPA and in the majority of circumstances, this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.

Please note that we cannot guarantee the security of emails you send to us or we send to you over the internet. Information sent by email over the internet is not secure and is at risk of being intercepted and read by people other than those it was intended for. Any information you send to us by email is at your own risk.

If you have any doubt about the authenticity of an email you receive which claims to come from HMRC please do not follow any links within the email, disclose any personal details or respond to it. Forward it to us at: phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk

Further information

To find out more about re-using public sector data, see the Public Sector Information Unlocking Service on the Office of Public Sector Information website. (Opens new window)