Glenn & Co (Essex) Ltd), R (on the application of) v HM Revenue & Customs

The extended meaning of “document” in Finance Act 2008, section 114, includes a computer because it is a thing in which information is recorded. The information-gathering powers in Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, section 118B, may therefore extend to inspecting and removing a computer containing relevant business information.

The presence of irrelevant material on the same computer does not prevent its removal, provided that the computer contains some material within the statutory description. That power remains distinct from the more intrusive warrant-based search power under section 118C. Parliamentary materials are admissible under Pepper v Hart only where the statutory language is ambiguous or obscure, or the ordinary meaning produces absurdity, and the ministerial statement is clear.

Glenn & Co (Essex) Ltd sought judicial review of HMRC officers’ unannounced removal of a computer server and nineteen computers during an inspection of the claimant’s excise-goods business. The computers were returned shortly afterwards.

Permission was granted only on the issue whether the information and inspection powers in Customs and Excise Management Act 1979, section 118B, as enlarged by section 114 of the Finance Act 2008, permitted the removal of computers. The claimant also sought permission to add a factual ground concerning an alleged failure to demand production of documents, and sought to rely on Hansard. The central issue was whether a computer fell within the statutory extension of “document” and, if so, whether the power was limited by the presence of irrelevant material.

1. Judicial review ground. The proposed additional ground alleging that HMRC had not demanded production of documents was refused under CPR 54.15. It was raised late, was unsupported by the claimant’s evidence, and substantially involved factual issues unsuitable for determination in judicial review proceedings.
2. Meaning of “document”. Section 114(2) of the Finance Act 2008 extends the operation of the provisions to which it applies. It treats a reference to a document as a reference to anything in which information of any description is recorded. The language is sufficiently wide to include a computer. The ordinary meaning of “document” does not restrict the express statutory extension.
3. Nature of computer storage. A computer hard disk is properly regarded as a single object containing a variety of materials, rather than merely as a container of separate files. A computer containing both relevant and irrelevant information may therefore be inspected or removed where it contains information falling within section 118B(1)(b). The power does not require officers to extract only the relevant information before taking the computer.
4. Information and search powers. Extending section 118B to computers does not collapse the distinction between that power and the warrant-based search power in section 118C. Section 118B contains its own safeguards concerning reasonable time, reasonable periods, copying and provision of copies required for business conduct.
5. Hansard. Permission to rely on Parliamentary proceedings under Pepper v Hart was refused. The statutory provision was neither ambiguous nor obscure, and the defendant’s construction did not produce absurdity. In any event, the proposed passages did not contain a clear statement of the provision’s meaning.
6. The judicial review claim was refused.