Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 section 23

Freedom of information

Section 23 clarifies how HMRC's duty of confidentiality interacts with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, setting out which HMRC-held information is exempt from freedom of information requests and which is not.

• Revenue and customs information relating to a person is exempt from freedom of information disclosure only if releasing it would directly identify the person or allow their identity to be worked out
• The exceptions and gateways that normally allow HMRC to share confidential information are disregarded when deciding whether this exemption applies
• All other information held by HMRC that does not identify or enable identification of a specific person is not exempt and remains subject to the normal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000
• The term "revenue and customs information relating to a person" carries the same meaning as it does elsewhere in the Act, covering information held by HMRC that relates to an identifiable individual or entity