List of HMT officers who were provided early sight of the Independent Loan Charge Review

Response to this request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, HM Treasury should have responded by now (details). You can complain by requesting an internal review.

Dear Her Majesty's Treasury,

As confirmed in previous FOI requests, a "small number of government officials in HMRC and HM Treasury were provided early sight of the Independent Loan Charge Review under strict and controlled conditions. This was to correct any factual errors ahead of publication and was provided in hard copy."

I understand the hard copies were destroyed and there is no way to ascertain whether those officials only corrected factual errors, or suggested other edits.

In order to clarify things, can you please provide the following:

1. the full list of 'government officials' (and other individuals, if applicable) who received the early copy of the Review;

2. A signed declaration by each one of those officials, where they confirm they only suggested corrections to factual errors, and did not suggest any other changes to the report.

3. Any email or other correspondence to/from the individuals included in point 1 above, in which that draft of the Loan Charge Review is discussed. For example, any emails to or from those individuals that include the keywords "Early sight" or "Preview" or "Draft". If this generates too many results, please restrict it to the months of August and September 2019.

Yours faithfully,

Matt Smith

FOI Requests, HM Treasury

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FOI Requests, HM Treasury

Dear Mr Smith

Thank you for your Freedom of Information request below which we received
21 January and are currently processing under reference FOI2021/02416. We
aim to provide a full response no later than Thursday 18 February.

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Unit | Correspondence and Information Rights | HM
Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ  
[1]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury

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FOI Requests, HM Treasury

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Smith

 

Please find attached HM Treasury’s response to your information request.

 

You appear to have submitted your request to us twice, so I have copied
this to both of your email addresses.

 

We expect to respond to your related FOI request (our reference
FOI2021/02804) on or before the statutory deadline of 23 February.

 

Your sincerely

 

Information Rights Unit | Correspondence and Information Rights Team | HM
Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A
2HQ | [1]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury 

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FOI Requests, HM Treasury

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Smith

 

Please find attached HM Treasury’s response to your information request.

 

You appear to have submitted your request to us twice, so I have copied
this to both of your email addresses.

 

We expect to respond to your related FOI request (our reference
FOI2021/02804) on or before the statutory deadline of 23 February.

 

Your sincerely

 

Information Rights Unit | Correspondence and Information Rights Team | HM
Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A
2HQ | [1]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury 

This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the
use of the individual(s) to whom they are addressed. If you are not the
intended recipient and have received this email in error, please notify
the sender and delete the email. This footnote also confirms that our
email communications may be monitored to ensure the secure and effective
operation of our systems and for other lawful purposes, and that this
email has been swept for malware and viruses.

References

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1. http://www.gov.uk/hm-treasury

FOI Requests, HM Treasury

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Smith

 

Please find attached HM Treasury’s response to your information request.

 

You appear to have submitted your request to us twice, so I have copied
this to both of your email addresses.

 

We expect to respond to your related FOI request (our reference
FOI2021/02804) on or before the statutory deadline of 23 February.

 

Your sincerely

 

Information Rights Unit | Correspondence and Information Rights Team | HM
Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A
2HQ | [1]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury 

This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the
use of the individual(s) to whom they are addressed. If you are not the
intended recipient and have received this email in error, please notify
the sender and delete the email. This footnote also confirms that our
email communications may be monitored to ensure the secure and effective
operation of our systems and for other lawful purposes, and that this
email has been swept for malware and viruses.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.gov.uk/hm-treasury

FOI Requests, HM Treasury

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Smith

 

Please find attached HM Treasury’s response to your information request.

 

You appear to have submitted your request to us twice, so I have copied
this to both of your email addresses.

 

We expect to respond to your related FOI request (our reference
FOI2021/02804) on or before the statutory deadline of 23 February.

 

Your sincerely

 

Information Rights Unit | Correspondence and Information Rights Team | HM
Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A
2HQ | [1]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury 

This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the
use of the individual(s) to whom they are addressed. If you are not the
intended recipient and have received this email in error, please notify
the sender and delete the email. This footnote also confirms that our
email communications may be monitored to ensure the secure and effective
operation of our systems and for other lawful purposes, and that this
email has been swept for malware and viruses.

References

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1. http://www.gov.uk/hm-treasury

Dear FOI Requests,

Your Ref: FOI2021/02416

Thanks for your reply to my FOI request. I am disappointed you haven't answered any of my questions, in particular about the names of the HMT officials who had early sight of the Loan Charge report. While it is of course acceptable not to disclose the names of junior officials, you omitted to indicate whether any SENIOR officials received the Early sight copy of the Loan Charge Review. I find it very hard to believe this important report, transmitted before its publication to a small, selected group of officers, was only distributed to junior ones. If senior officials did receive the draft report, your choice to omit their names in your response would possibly be in breach of the FOIA.

In order to get some answers, let me clarify my questions:

1. please provide the full list of HMT employees (and contractors / external collaborator, if applicable) who received the early sight copy of the Loan Charge, together with their job title at the time, and the date when they received the copy. Please also indicate how they received the document, and how they communicated any corrections or edits to Sir Amyas Morse's team.
NOTES to question 1:
-- I expect you to disclose the name of senior officials in FULL. If no senior officials received that report, please state this clearly.
-- For junior officers or any others whose name can't be disclosed in accordance with FOIA, feel free to hide the names but please provide a unique identifier (maybe an individual code such as "employee1", "employee2", or similar) so they can be referred to in further questions.

2. If the answer to the first question includes SENIOR officials, please release all emails to/from those officials which contain both the keywords "loan charge" (possibly shortened as "LC") and "draft", during the month of December 2019.
NOTES to question 2:
-- If the request above generates too many matches, please progressively reduce the number of officials so the amount of matches falls within the "appropriate limit". For example, if there are 3 senior officials, and the query generates too many matches, try with 2 officials only; and if this still generates too many results, with one only. While reducing the number of officials, please always keep the most senior (so that, for example, if there is only one official whose emails you are going to release, this is the most senior of the group).
-- If no senior officials received the early sight report, and only Junior officials did, please provide all the emails to/from those junior officials with the keywords "Loan Charge" and "Draft" during the month of December 2019. As per my previous point, if this query generates to many matches, please progressively reduce the number of officials, making sure the ones with highest seniority remain in the list. As previously mentioned, there is no need to reveal their names, but please provide a reference so I can reconcile the emails with the individuals listed in the response to my first question.

I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Matt Smith

eCase@hmtreasury.gov.uk on behalf of FOI Requests, HM Treasury

Our ref: FOI2021/06726

Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your request for information which we are considering under
the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

This is to confirm receipt of your request and to let you know that it is
receiving attention. If you have any enquiries regarding your request do
not hesitate to contact us.

Please note: HM Treasury has a dedicated email address for the public to
make Freedom of Information requests: [email address]

Yours sincerely

Information Rights Unit | Correspondence and Information Rights | HM
Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ [1]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury

Correspondence and Information Rights | HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road,
London, SW1A 2HQ [2]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury

References

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2. http://www.gov.uk/hm-treasury

FOI Requests, HM Treasury

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Smith

 

Please find attached HM Treasury’s response to your information request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Rights Unit | Correspondence and Information Rights Team | HM
Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A
2HQ | [1]www.gov.uk/hm-treasury 

 

 

This email and any files transmitted with it are intended solely for the
use of the individual(s) to whom they are addressed. If you are not the
intended recipient and have received this email in error, please notify
the sender and delete the email. This footnote also confirms that our
email communications may be monitored to ensure the secure and effective
operation of our systems and for other lawful purposes, and that this
email has been swept for malware and viruses.

References

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1. http://www.gov.uk/hm-treasury