Journalist permitted to see parties’ skeleton arguments

There are 18 017 appellants in this case known as the VAT umbrella litigation. HMRC had compulsorily de-registered each one for VAT. For others it had cancelled the VAT flat-rate scheme issued assessments for undeclared VAT and denied entitlement to the employment allowance deduction. The tax authority considered that the appellants had all taken part in an ‘organised and contrived structure with the purpose of defrauding the Revenue by claiming tax benefits which they were not entitled to’. The appellants disputed this.

The case management hearing held before the main First-tier Tribunal appeal was carried out in public and had been attended remotely by a BBC journalist. Afterwards the tribunal emailed the representatives of the parties to ask them if they had any objection to it passing on their skeleton arguments and the tribunal bundle to the journalist. HMRC did not object but the...