Revenue admits selling tax secrets

The body has promised to tighten up security after it found some employees routinely browsing customer files, including celebrity tax details. Although some were just looking up details out of curiosity, others were using the information maliciously and selling it on to external sources.

The admission also follows the exposure of the tax records of Lord Levy, Labour's Middle East envoy, to the press and comes at a time when the government is promoting the wider use of computers for public services, a scheme that has already come under fire.