Find information already published by HMRC

The FOI Act requires all public authorities to produce a Publication Scheme that specifies the classes of information which the public authority publishes or intends to publish.

In May 2008 the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued guidance on new model publication schemes, which public authorities are being encouraged to adopt from 1 January 2009.

The classes of information defined in the new guidance are:

  • Who we are and what we do
    Organisational information, locations and contacts, constitutional and legal governance.
  • What we spend and how we spend it
    Financial information relating to projected and actual income and expenditure, tendering, procurement and contracts.
  • What our priorities are and how we are doing
    Strategy and performance information, plans, assessments, inspections and reviews.
  • How we make decisions
    Policy proposals and decisions. Decision making processes, internal criteria and procedures, consultations.
  • Our policies and procedures
    Current written protocols for delivering our functions and responsibilities.
  • Lists and registers
    Information held in registers required by law and other lists and registers relating to the functions of the authority.
  • The services we offer
    Advice and guidance, booklets and leaflets, transactions and media releases. A description of the services offered.

Information on all of these categories, (and much more besides), is already published on the HMRC website. In the light of the ICO’s new guidance, we will be looking at how we can make it easier for users of our website to find this information. In the meantime, you can use the following methods to search for information we already publish:

HMRC is a Crown body and the information we produce is subject to Crown copyright, which is administered by the HM Stationery Office (HMSO) operating from within the Office of Public Sector Information. To find out more see the Copyright section below.

Copyright

The information made available by HMRC is Crown copyright unless stated otherwise. The copyright in some of the material that may be found in this Publication Scheme has been waived, meaning you can reproduce this material freely. Categories of material for which copyright has been waived include: government press notices, legislation and explanatory notes on the legislation, ministerial speeches, consultation documents, documents featured on official websites, (except where expressly indicated otherwise), headline statistics and unpublished public records. More details of these and other categories can be found on the Office of Public Sector Information website.

The provision of other information under FOI does not give you an automatic right to re-use our documentation in a way that infringes copyright regulations, for example, by making multiple copies, publishing and issuing copies to the public, etc. Any information must be reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. Whenever HMRC information is being republished or copied to others, you must identify the source of the material and acknowledge its copyright status.

Brief extracts of any of the material included in the HMRC Publication Scheme may be reproduced under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, (sections 29 and 30), for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes, private study, criticism, review and news reporting. Details of the arrangements for re-using Crown copyright material can be found on the Office of Public Sector Information website.

Authorisation to re-use copyright material not owned by the Crown should be sought from the copyright holders concerned. If in doubt, users should contact the Office of Public Sector Information in the first instance.