(1)The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs may disclose to a person (“P”) any of the information included in the VAT registration of another person (“V”) if the disclosure is for the purpose of enabling or assisting P to assess—
(a)V's creditworthiness,
(b)V's compliance with regulatory requirements relating to financial matters, or
(c)the risk of fraud by V.
(2)But subsection (1) does not authorise the Commissioners to disclose any information which is, in the Commissioners' view, financial information relating to any business carried on by V.
(3)If VAT registration information is disclosed to a person in accordance with subsection (1), that person must not further disclose any of the information unless the Commissioners consent to the disclosure.
(4)If VAT registration information is disclosed to a person in accordance with subsection (3) or this subsection, that person must not further disclose any of the information unless the Commissioners consent to the disclosure.
(5)A person does not contravene subsection (3) or (4) by disclosing a financial assessment made wholly or partly in reliance on the VAT registration information, if the financial assessment itself does not include any VAT registration information.
(6)If VAT registration information is disclosed to a person in accordance with subsection (1), (3) or (4), that person must not use that information except for the purposes of making a financial assessment.
(7)A person does not contravene subsection (6) by using, for any purpose, a financial assessment made wholly or partly in reliance on the VAT registration information.
(8)The Commissioners for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs may make arrangements with any person about disclosures of information to that person (the “recipient”) under subsection (1).
(9)The arrangements may (in particular) provide for—
(a)a fee to be payable by the recipient for the disclosure of information;
(b)conditions to apply to the recipient in relation to information disclosed (including conditions relating to the transfer, holding and processing of the information);
(c)financial penalties to be payable by the recipient for a failure to meet conditions which apply to the recipient under the arrangements.
(10)The Treasury may, by regulations, amend this section so that it authorises the Commissioners to disclose VAT registration information included in a person's VAT registration for additional purposes.
(11)In this section—
“financial assessment” means an assessment of a kind mentioned in subsection (1)(a), (b) or (c);
“VAT registration” means registration under the Value Added Tax Act 1994;
“VAT registration information” means information of the kind that the Commissioners are authorised to disclose under subsection (1) (as read with subsection (2)).
(12)Regulations under this section are subject to affirmative resolution procedure.