HMRC's insists that these incidents are "rare" within its 68,000-strong workforce.
HMRC is facing scrutiny after hundreds of its employees were fired for mishandling sensitive taxpayer information.
According to Freedom of Information data obtained by The Telegraph revealed that from 2022 to 2025, His Majesty's Revenue & Customs investigated 354 staff for data security breaches, resulting in 186 dismissals.
Notably, 50 employees were fired in the past year alone, despite HMRC's insistence that such incidents are "rare" within its 68,000-strong workforce.
Some breaches were startlingly careless, one worker was sacked after emailing himself personal records of 100 taxpayers so he could print them at home, a tribunal later ruling the dismissal justified.
Officials blame the rise in cases partly on home working, which blurred boundaries between official and personal systems.
Written by
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with 25 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 17 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Forum, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and the National Cyber Security Show, and served as editor of SC Media UK, Infosecurity Magazine and IT Security Guru. He was also an analyst with 451 Research and a product marketing lead at Tenable.
