Teresa Chance 
Corporate Governance 
04/52 
100 Parliament Street 
 
 
London  SW1A 2BQ 
 
Mr William Thackeray 
 
 
by email to: 
Tel 
  
 
[FOI #7572 email] 
 
Fax 
020 7147 0666 
 
 
 
Email    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Date 
19 February 2009 
www.hmrc.gov.uk 
 
Our Ref 
FOI 1159/09 
 
Your Ref 
           
 
________ 
 
 
 
 
 
Dear Mr Thackeray, 
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000 
 
Thank you for your email request for information dated 3 February 2009.  You asked: 
 
Please provide a list of all gifts, hospitality or donations supplied to HMRC by Scientology 
organisations, over the past 5 years. 
 
You may be aware that HMRC came into being on 18th April 2005, formed from the former 
Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise.  This response, therefore, relates to HMRC 
from that date. 
 
I have interpreted your reference to donations to mean monetary donations.  I can confirm 
that HMRC does not accept monetary donations from any source so no information will be 
held in relation to donations.  
 
Under section 12(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), HMRC can neither 
confirm nor deny that it holds information that may fall within the description of the remainder 
of your request, because we estimate that it would take more than the appropriate limit to 
ascertain whether or not we hold the information. This should not be taken as any indication 
that the information you requested either is, or is not, held by the Department.  
 
Section 1 of FOIA places two duties on public authorities. The first duty, contained in section 
1(1)(a), is to confirm or deny if the requested information is held. The second duty at section 
1(1)(b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held.   
 
 
Information is available in large print, audio tape and Braille formats. 
Type Talk service prefix number – 18001 
 
 
 
 
 

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Section 12(1) of FOIA provides that a department is not obliged to comply with its duty under 
section 1(1)(b) if the estimated cost exceeds a limit as prescribed in regulations. The 
Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations has 
set this limit at £600 and this represents an estimated cost of one person spending 3.5 
working days in the determination of whether the department holds the information. It also 
includes locating, retrieving and extracting the information.  Section 12(2) of FOIA states that 
a department is not obliged to comply with its duty under paragraph (a) of section 1(1) where 
the estimated cost of complying with that paragraph alone would exceed the appropriate 
limit.   
 
It may help if I explain that HMRC does not keep central records for the whole Department 
which would readily enable us to establish if the requested information is held.  HMRC keeps 
central records of gifts and hospitality received by Board members but records relating to 
gifts and hospitality received by other staff members are maintained in offices throughout 
HMRC.  To establish whether the specific information you have requested is held would 
require an extensive search of records across the Department which would exceed the fees 
limit.     
   
If you are able to narrow the scope of your request to a level where the upper cost limit is not 
exceeded, the Department may be able to confirm whether information is held and, if held, 
provide it to you.  Any reformulated request the department receives from you will be treated 
as a fresh FOI request. 
 
Information provided outside of FOIA 
 
You may be interested to know that HMRC has published details of hospitality received by 
HMRC executive Board members between 18 April 2005 and 31 December 2006.  This can 
be found via the following link:  
 
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/freedom/board-hospitality.pdf 
 
In addition, the Cabinet Office has recently published a list of hospitality received by 
members of departmental boards during 2007, which includes information relating to HMRC 
board members.  This can be found via the following link:  
 
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/propriety_and_ethics/civil_service/hospitality.aspx 
 
If you are not happy with this reply you may request an internal review by emailing 
[email address] or by writing to HMRC FOI Team, Room 4/52, 100 Parliament 
Street London SWIA 2BQ.  You must request a review within 2 months of the date of this 
letter.  It would assist our review if you set out which aspects of the reply concern you and 
why you are dissatisfied. 
  
If you are not happy with the outcome of the internal review, you may apply directly to the 
Information Commissioner for a decision.  Generally, the Information Commissioner cannot 
make a decision unless you have exhausted the review procedure provided by HMRC.  He 
can be contacted at The Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, 
Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.  E-mail:[email address] 
 
Yours sincerely 
 
 
Teresa Chance 
 
 
 
 

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