I mentioned I'd done an FoI request of HMRC earlier today. I've now done another:
How many people employed by the Large Business Service of HMRC have moved from that employment to the employment of a company with whom they had previous engagement in their capacity as an HMRC employee in each of the years to March 2008 to March 2012 inclusive?
Several commentators seemed to want the information. So I've asked.
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John Connors – Vodafone.
Geoff Lloyd – E&Y.
Dave Hartnett – HSBC.
There must be more
interesting question – assume they cant refuse to answer one of these can they? do they not have restrictive convenants in the HMRC employment contracts either?
At least you have FOI. Here on the Isle of Man we have been promised an FOI Act for many years. It is always “on the way” but there are plenty of excuses keep getting thrown up to hamper its supposed progress.
There are a lot, lot more questionable matters go on in the Isle of Man apart from simple (or indeed complex) tax dodging…
…and in Jersey it’s much the same.
Everyone who ever leaves HMRC and moves pinto practice will have had “previous engagement” with each the Big 4 within that period. What is your point?
To find out how common this is
Good luck with that: sometime next year, you’ll be told that HMRC does not collect that information.
This might be literally true; it’s more likely that it isn’t true in the sense that you didn’t ask in exactly the terms used in an internal procedure on post-employment conflict-of-interest declarations. It’s also possible that several overlapping schemes exist, and you’ll eventuality be given the numbers from the one with the most favourable results.
It is also quite likely that frequent changes in regulations and procedures mean that no year-on-year comparison is possible.
There is another possible outcome: staff on ‘revolving-door’ secondments with the Big Four – if the practice exists in HMRC as it does in Transport with the major civil engineering consultancies – will be engaged in activities covered by the ‘commercial confidentiality’ exclusions of the FOI legislation.
Above all, you are dealing with an organisation that sees what it chooses to see: what they choose to count is the second barrier after ‘what they choose to tell you’.
what do you mean by revolving door secondments, do you mean HMRC employees on revolving secondments to big 4, or big 4 employees on revolving door secondments to HMRC?