HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has disciplined more than
600 staff over the past three years for inappropriately accessing
people's personal data, reports the BBC.
Treasury financial secretary Jane Kennedy revealed the figures
in a written House of Commons reply.
She said that in a large number of cases, HMRC staff had been
sacked for wrongly accessing private data on individuals.
She revealed that 238 people were disciplined in 2005, 180 in
2006, and 192 in 2007.
Kennedy was responding to a question from Tory shadow home
affairs spokesman James Brokenshire.
Kennedy said the figures demonstrated "the strength of HMRC's
disciplinary procedures".
She said HMRC had a "strict policy forbidding staff to access
customer records unless they have a legitimate business need".
