MORE THAN 600 staff at HM Revenue and Customs have been disciplined for snooping through tax payers' personal records.

In answer to a parliamentary question, Treasury financial secretary Jane Kennedy said 238 people were disciplined in 2005, 180 in 2006 and 192 in 2007.

The MP said a large number had been fired but couldn't say how many. Others received a reprimand.

Kennedy said that HMRC has a "strict policy forbidding staff to access customer records unless they have a legitimate business need".

"Breaches of this policy are taken seriously and will result in the commencement of disciplinary proceedings," she said. "Each case is treated on its merits but, in many cases, the disciplinary penalty for breach is dismissal. "

Kennedy reckons the fact that the numbers represent "less than 1 per cent of total staff for each of the three years in question," is a good thing.

She didn't reveal how many of the other 99 per cent didn't get caught. µ