HMRC phishing rip-off rises to £49m as MPs criticise ‘unacceptable’ delay

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Your assist makes all of the distinction. Learn extra A committee of MPs has criticised HM Income and Customs (HMRC) for failing to promptly report a knowledge breach affecting roughly 100,000 taxpayers.

The Treasury Committee stated it solely discovered of the incident by way of a notification printed on the HMRC web site, coinciding with a stay session on June 4.

The breach, a phishing rip-off, resulted within the lack of £47 million, a determine not too long ago revised to £49 million.

HMRC officers knowledgeable the Treasury Committee that they've contacted, or are within the means of contacting, 100,000 people whose accounts have been locked down following what they described as an "organised crime" incident that started final 12 months.

Including to the controversy, the Affiliation of Chartered Licensed Accountants (ACCA) acknowledged in a letter printed by the committee on Tuesday that it had not mentioned the phishing incident with HMRC and was unaware of it earlier than the June 4 listening to.

The committee additionally printed a letter despatched by way of electronic mail from its chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier to John-Paul Marks, chief govt, HMRC.

<img src="https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/06/04/10/17ef1950fa745574b538053e10b0c8e9Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQ5MTE0NDE4-2.53247952.jpg" srcset="https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/06/04/10/17ef1950fa745574b538053e10b0c8e9Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQ5MTE0NDE4-2.53247952.jpg?quality=75&width=320&auto=webp 320w, https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/06/04/10/17ef1950fa745574b538053e10b0c8e9Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzQ5MTE0NDE4-2.53247952.jpg?quality=75&width=640&auto=webp 640w" loading="lazy" alt="On June 4, it emerged that HMRC had lost £47 million after a phishing scam breached tens of thousands of tax accounts" class="sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE inline-gallery-btn"/> open picture in gallery

On June 4, it emerged that HMRC had misplaced £47 million after a phishing rip-off breached tens of hundreds of tax accounts (PA Archive) The letter stated: “I'm alarmed that it was by no means deemed obligatory to tell Parliament about a difficulty which affected such an enormous variety of taxpayers and led to the lack of £47 million of public cash.

“To find this data throughout a session from press studies and with out satisfactory time for the committee to evaluation the knowledge intimately is unacceptable.”

The letter stated the committee is looking for responses from HMRC as to “why was Parliament not notified earlier in regards to the lack of £47 million of taxpayers’ cash, whether or not by way of a written ministerial assertion and/or public or confidential letters to the Treasury Committee and the Public Accounts Committee?”

The committee can also be looking for responses on why the replace was printed on the day of the committee listening to on the work of HMRC and who else in Authorities was instructed in regards to the incident and when.

It additionally desires to obtain a timeline of how the incident unfolded and discover out what measures HMRC has put in place to make sure that such incidents don't occur in future.

The letter requested for a reply by June 24, 2025.

In the meantime, the letter from Glenn Collins, head of technical and strategic engagement, ACCA, to Dame Meg, dated June 5, stated: “Whereas we repeatedly interact with HMRC, together with earlier within the 12 months about points referring to agent account entry, we've got not obtained any communication from HMRC on the problem of taxpayer account breaches till yesterday.