My Lords, I am grateful to my noble friend for raising the issue of data sharing between HMRC and the Employers’ Liability Tracing Office. HMRC has already specifically amended its processes to provide employer reference numbers and employment histories when requested by individual applicants. Further, I believe any amendment to allow data sharing between HMRC and the Employers’ Liability Tracing Office would be outside the scope of this Bill.
I understand that, as well as the normal concerns about taxpayers’ confidentiality, HMRC is concerned that disclosing all employer reference numbers would raise issues regarding proportionality and, of course, in today’s circumstances, the potential for fraud. Therefore, I do not think the Bill is the best place to bring forward such a widespread change, but I would be happy to meet my noble friend to understand more about the issue. However, I believe that Clause 22 should stand part of the Bill.