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[LUG] The missing tax discs

 

Saw an article in the Times

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2924483.ece

I quote

"The exchange, released by the NAO, includes an e-mail stating: “I do not need 
address, bank or parent details in download — are these removable to make the file 
smaller?” HMRC replies: “I must stress we must make use of data we hold and not 
overburden the business by asking them to run additional data scans/filters that may 
incur a cost to the department.” The data would be transferred by CD-Rom.

<snip>

It was reported last night that it would have cost HMRC £5,000 to edit the data on 
the discs."

As a nontechie, am I missing something?

If the details were in a database then all it would require is for someone to delete 
3 fields: ie 2 minutes of tech time plus computer time to remove the fields from 25m 
records

£5000 seems a bit extreme


--
Henry
Fri Nov 23 12:31:21 GMT 2007

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