Tracking of Toilet Breaks

Richard Jackson made this Freedom of Information request to HM Revenue and Customs

The request was refused by HM Revenue and Customs.

From: Richard Jackson

2 September 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

It has recently been reported that HMRC staff have been instructed
to reduce the number of toilet breaks they take in a day, and that
information relating to the number and/or duration of such breaks
is recorded by HMRC management.

Can you please confirm whether there is any truth in these reports,
and release copies of any memos, emails, minutes, policies,
procedures or the like relating to such instruction and/or
monitoring.

Yours faithfully,

Richard

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From: Sharpe, John (G&S)
HM Revenue and Customs

16 September 2008

Attachment 1927 R Jackosn 080916reply.doc.pdf
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Dear Mr Jackson,

I enclose HMRC's response to your recent request for information about
toilet breaks.

Yours sincerely

John Sharpe

Governance & Security

HMRC

Room 4/52

100 Parliament Street

London

SW1A 2BG

Tel 020 7147 2412

Fax 020 7147 0666

[1][email address]

The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may
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recipient or his/her representative you are not authorised to, and must
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If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
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carried on them recorded, to secure the effective operation of the system
and for lawful purposes.

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From: Richard Jackson

23 September 2008

Dear John,

Thank you for this response. I would appreciate it if you could
provide advice on how to narrow the scope to a level that would
fall under the appropriate limit. Although you have indicated that
to contact each office individually would cost more than the limit,
you have not provided any information on, for example, how much you
estimate each such contact would likely cost, thus giving no
sensible way of narrowing the scope of my request in a realistic
manner.

I look forward to your assistance in this regard.

Yours sincerely,

Richard

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From: Sharpe, John (G&S)
HM Revenue and Customs

29 September 2008

Dear Richard,

Thank you for your two e-mails following my responses to your requests for
information about the use of pseudonyms and restrictions on toilet breaks.
I deal with both in this reply. Given the way `whatdotheyknow' appears to
work I am sending a reply to each of your e-mails so they are posted
against the published requests.

Both your requests cover information, which if it was held at all, would
be held locally and, in the case of pseudonyms, by individual officers and
their managers.

First you may not be aware that HMRC has around 600 offices and 90000
staff. Our offices range from quite small local ones to large centres
containing several thousand people.

That is why, for the question relating to toilet breaks, I suggested you
might narrow your request to a particular office or business area; that
would reduce the number of people we would have to contact and
consequently our potential costs. But given in my reply I explained that
it was implicit under the 1992 Regulations that there should be no
restriction on such breaks I have to say it is unlikely that there will
any information covered by your very wide ranging request. I say wide
ranging because there is no restriction on how far back you want the
information and by using the phrase `relating to such instruction or
policy' you effectively include any document which has even an oblique
reference to the subject.

In relation to pseudonyms I set out HMRC's policy which included
information that the use of pseudonyms was monitored by the staff member's
manager. I used costs in relation to the part of your request asking for
local arrangements. In order to see if we held such information I would
first have to identify which, if any, of our 90000 staff used a pseudonym;
as there is no central record that would mean I would need to ask
everyone. Once I had done that I would have to identify and contact
their manager to see what monitoring arrangements they had put in place.
It is difficult to see how you might narrow the scope of this aspect of
your request but I agree that I should have given more information on the
level of work needed in my first reply.

Yours sincerely

John Sharpe

Governance & Security

HMRC

Room 4/52

100 Parliament Street

London

SW1A 2BG

Fax 020 7147 0666

[1][email address]

The information in this e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may
be subject to legal professional privilege. Unless you are the intended
recipient or his/her representative you are not authorised to, and must
not, read, copy, distribute, use or retain this message or any part of it.
If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender
immediately.

HM Revenue & Customs computer systems will be monitored and communications
carried on them recorded, to secure the effective operation of the system
and for lawful purposes.

The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs are not liable for any
personal views of the sender.

This e-mail may have been intercepted and its information altered.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[email address]

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