asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer by what authority offices of the Inland Revenue have disclosed details of miners' income tax rebates to local offices of the Department of Social Security during the dispute in the coal industry.

The tax affairs of all individuals are protected by strict rules of confidentiality and the Inland Revenue does not make disclosures concerning them.

Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that in the present dispute miners are most concerned that everybody seems to know about the miners' tax affairs except the miners themselves? Will he say under which rules of confidentiality offices such as the social security department know about miners' tax rebates before the miners are given any details?

In no circumstances should tax offices disclose to Department of Health and Social Security officials or to anyone else details of any repayments made. However, computation of rebates likely to be made to the average miner, on assumptions about their likely pay and tax and family circumstances, were made by the Inland Revenue and for illustrative purposes were passed on to the Department of Health and Social Security. I repeat that in those computations there were no details about any actual person or any actual repayment made.

In that calculation is account taken of concessionary coal which, we understand, bears no tax at all?

The sole step the Inland Revenue took was to make a computation of the rebate that was likely to be made to an average miner on certain assumptions about likely tax, but no detail was disclosed of any actual circumstances.