Privacy International: HMRC’s obligation to disclose to third parties

In the Privacy International case, the decision of HMRC not to disclose information on an investigation it was carrying out was quashed as a result of both a misapprehension of the law and a series of procedural blunders. The case’s key message is that the decision whether to disclose is not binary: it does not call for a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Rather, it requires a thorough assessment of the conflicting interests at play in each particular case, in order to decide the scope and conditions of a disclosure (if any).