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Revenue and Customs: Surveillance

Volume 506: debated on Tuesday 2 March 2010

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) requests and (b) approvals for authorisation for HM Revenue and Customs to carry out (a) property interference, (b) intrusive surveillance and (c) covert human intelligence sources there have been in each of the last five years. (319632)

The Chief Surveillance Commissioner, Sir Christopher Rose, publishes a yearly figure for property interference, intrusive surveillance and covert human intelligence sources for all police forces and other agencies, including HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), in his annual report to Parliament. Sir Christopher does not break the figure into individual forces or agencies as the sensitivity of the information could lead to criminals assessing the covert capability of each force and agency. This applies equally to HMRC and it is therefore not considered to be in the public interest to make this information available.