Budget 2010: HMRC to get powers to open people's post

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Budget 2010: HMRC officers to get powers to open people's post without asking permission

(please not this article is lifted as is from the web page - all spelling and grammatical errors are as is)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... ssion.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Tax inspectors are to get wide-ranging powers to open people’s post without their permission for the first time, it can disclosed.

Officers will be allowed to intercept any suspicious mail anywhere in the country and open it before it is delivered, under plans being drawn up by the Government to amend the Postal Services Act.

The measure is billed as a bid to crack down on tobacco smuggling. However, a HM Revenue and Customs spokesman said the powers could be applied much more widely.

Currently, Royal Mail staff have a legal right to intercept suspicious letters and parcels in mail centres and sorting offices and pass them to HM Revenue and Customs.

Tax inspectors must then notify the addressee and agree a mutually acceptable time to open the letter or parcel, before deciding whether to take any enforcement acdtion.

However the Government is now proposing to remove the legal requirement which will now allow inspectors to open suspicious post without asking permission first.

Treasury documents say: “HMRC will no longer be required to notify the addressee and invite them to attend before such packets can be opened”.

The new measure will be passed into law as part of the Budget over the next few weeks, and amend section 106 of the Postal Services Act 2000.

Under current law, the only other enforcement officers who can open mail are border guards who can open the post without permission at ports and airports.

The change was disclosed in a Treasury document published alongside the Budget headlined “Tackling tobacco smuggling in the post”. However a HM Revenue and Customs spokesman said the powers would be applied much more broadly.

The spokesman said: "The change is mainly directed at helping to combat tobacco smuggling but the powers in s106 apply to any contraband including prohibited or restricted goods.”

She declined to say how many times HM Revenue and Customs had used the existing powers in recent years.

Accountants warned that it was likely tax inspectors would seek to use the powers in other areas once they became law.

Heather Taylor, a senior tax partner at Grant Thornton, said: “This seems like a very small and limited change, but it could be a very big step for increased powers HMRC. Once new powers are in the hands of HMRC they tend to be extended.”

Civil liberties campaigners were appalled about the increased powers. Alex Deane, a spokesman for Big Brother Watch, said: “This is a dreadful development. The post has always been regarded as near-sacrosanct in law.

“The last time our mail was opened by the authorities without notice, our country was fighting a World War. I hardly think that the situation produced by the government’s tobacco tax compares.

“Once the principle of opening our mail has been accepted, what else will the Government use as an excuse to pry into our post?"
HM Revenue and Customs are growing increasingly aggressive in their battle with tax evaders. Earlier this year it announced plans for a crack down on middle class professionals who do not pay their fair share of tax.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "Royal Mail has no powers to open the mail and in rare cases when an item of mail clearly poses a hazard to other mail and/or the safety of our people - for example, if a noxious chemical was spilling from a package - we would call in HMRC and, usually, the police."

[NWpostie]

This likely to be abused, just like the Regulation of investigatory powers, which was originally to prevent Terrorism, it was abused on such a scale by Councils that a National outcry went up and down the Country, some people just can't help themselves when given a bit of extra regulatory powers.

[k979aaa]

Well if they open it i bloody well hope they will deliver it too for i will kill it off or get my manager to deliver it!.