Scottish Income Tax operation by HMRC: service level agreement

Annex C: Scottish Income Tax Confidentiality Agreement

1. To ensure the timely and effective delivery of changes to SIT rates and thresholds, the Scottish Government may need to share Budget sensitive information with HMRC which provides details for SIT policy development.

2. HMRC will respect the convention that Scottish Government Ministers are able to seek advice from HMRC on the delivery of policy options within the scope of SIT in confidence, between the Scottish Government and HMRC only.

3. HMRC will limit access to sensitive information shared by the Scottish Government on policy options to individuals who have a clear business need to access it, to ensure the operational delivery of any required changes. A list of these individuals will be kept updated and agreed with the Scottish Government prior to any information being shared.

4. In dealing with sensitive information shared by the Scottish Government, HMRC officials will adhere to the standards of behaviour set out in the Civil Service Code. The Code is published here.

5. HMRC will require all individuals with access to sensitive information that is shared by the Scottish Government to have completed the relevant Budget security training within the previous 12 months. This training provides guidance for officials on how to treat sensitive Budget information and ensure it remains confidential.

6. If HMRC establishes a project to deliver any required SIT changes, HMRC will take measures to ensure the policy changes the project delivers remain confidential between HMRC and the Scottish Government only. These will include, but are not limited to, assigning a codename to the project.

7. HMRC may need to disclose sensitive information shared by the Scottish Government to trusted external IT stakeholders to support the delivery of SIT changes. HMRC will agree this with the Scottish Government prior to sharing the information.

8. HMRC will ensure these external IT stakeholders work under non-disclosure agreements to protect the confidentiality of sensitive information shared by the Scottish Government.

9. This Confidentiality Agreement does not preclude HMRC from sharing non-sensitive information about projects to deliver SIT changes beyond the key individuals agreed with SG. This may be necessary when the changes impact on wider HMRC priorities.

10. If any disputes arise regarding confidentiality, these will be dealt with using the disputes resolution policy set out at paragraphs 38 to 42 of the Service Level Agreement.