Dear Sir or Madam,

A number of MPs are hastening to make unsolicited payments to HMRC
in the hope of retrospectively making amends for financial gains
they somehow overlooked until details of their affairs began to
appear in the press in May 2009. I would like to see a list of all
such unsolicited payments by MPs which have been received to date,
along with details of which MPs paid them, and on what dates.

Yours etc.,
Michael McCarthy

Dear Mr McCarthy

I refer to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request on 16 May 2009 for
the following information:

"A number of MPs are hastening to make unsolicited payments to HMRC
in the hope of retrospectively making amends for financial gains they
somehow overlooked until details of their affairs began to appear in the
press in May 2009. I would like to see a list of all such unsolicited
payments by MPs which have been received to date, along with details of
which MPs paid them, and on what dates."

I can confirm that HMRC holds information within the scope of your
request. However it is exempt from disclosure by virtue of section 44 of
the FOI Act, which exempts information if its disclosure is prohibited
by any enactment. In this instance, the relevant enactment is the
Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act (CRCA) 2005. The effect of
section 23 of CRCA is that information we hold in connection with one of
our functions, and which identifies a person or enables their identity
to be deduced, is exempt from disclosure under FOI. In this context a
"person" includes both natural and legal persons.

If you are not happy with this reply you may request a review 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 content with the outcome of an internal review, you may
apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The
Information Commissioner will not usually consider a case unless you
have exhausted the internal review procedure provided by HMRC. He can be
contacted at The Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe House,
Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Yours sincerely

Aidan Callan
Freedom of Information Team
Room 4/52/006, 100 Parliament St., London SW1A 2BQ
[email address]

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Dear Aidan Callan (G&S),
I wish to request an internal review of your response to my FoI
request. Please pass this request to the HMRC FOI Team, Room 4/52,
100 Parliament Street, London SWIA 2BQ.

The basis of my request is my contention that the public interest,
at a time when the financial integrity of many MPs is deeply in
question, requires this information to be disclosed. Otherwise,
some constituents may come to cast their votes in ignorance of some
highly relevant evidence bearing on a sitting MP's claim to
probity.

Yours etc.,
Michael McCarthy