Dear Sir or Madam,

I am trying to find information on the use of pseudonyms by HMRC
Staff when dealing with the public (or, in modern parlance,
"customers"), whether in oral or written dealings, under what
circumstances this is allowed, and how records of this are kept.

Can you please tell me if there is a policy regarding this, and if
so provide information on it (e.g. copies of policy documents,
manuals or the like). If the use of pseudonyms is allowed, can you
please also explain how information on such use is tracked (e.g. a
simple list of names used by each staff member vs. full database of
every usage).

Thank you,

Richard

Dear Sir or Madam,

Can you please provide an update on my request, a response to which
is now overdue.

Yours sincerely,

Richard

Dear Mr Jackson,

I apologise for the delay in dealing with your request for information
about the use of pseudonyms. I attach HMRC's reply.

Yours sincerely

John Sharpe

Governance & Security

HMRC

Room 4/52

100 Parliament Street

London

SW1A 2BG

Fax 020 7147 0666

[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

Dear John,

Thank you for this response. I would ask that you provide advice on
how best to narrow the scope of my request so that it falls within
the appropriate limit.

Yours sincerely,

Richard

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

[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