Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2018 to Question 126040 on Revenue and Customs: Disclosure of Information, for what reason a request for information from HMRC must be defined in legislation.

Information held by HMRC is subject to strict statutory control under the Commissioners of Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (CRCA). This restricts sharing of information by HMRC to specified purposes. Any request for information from HMRC not already specified in the CRCA 2005 must therefore have a statutory gateway in order to allow HMRC to share that information.