The death of the Hansard approach

Article by Stephen Camm, tax investigations partner, and Kevin Hall, tax investigations manager, PwC. This article appeared in the November 2005 issue of Tax Adviser. On 1 September 2005, after 82 years, HMRC formally announced the death of the Hansard approach as a method to tackle cases of serious fraud. It was an early victim of the Inland Revenue's merger with HM Customs & Excise. Hansard was the procedure used to underpin the Board of Inland Revenue's selective prosecution policy and offered tax evaders the opportunity to avoid a possible prison sentence in return for a full confession and payment of tax, interest and penalties. The arrangement enabled the Revenue to collect a lot of tax while having to carry out relatively few detailed investigations.

The Revenue attributed Hansard's success to two key features: the non-disclosure of the reason why serious fraud was suspected, and the threat of prosecution should the process not be taken seriously.

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November 2005 by Stephen Camm