ECSH140000 - Witness Statements
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-10)


The below only applies to witness statements for cases being dealt with by courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. For witness statements for a case being dealt with in a court in Scotland staff should refer to the Witness Statements (Scotland) Guidance within the FIS Handbook.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

What is a witness statement?

A Witness Statement is a formal written document setting out the facts about a particular event or events. It is a statement of what a witness (the HMRC officer giving the evidence) will say when called to testify in court or give evidence in a tribunal.

A statement must be drafted in the witness’s own words (as far as it is possible to do so in the case of third-party witness Statements- see below).

A witness statement must abide by the rules of evidence and therefore must be:
- Accurate
- Relevant
- Facts not opinion (Proof not Prejudice)
- Fair
- Coherent
A witness statement must not contain hearsay. Hearsay is information received from other people that cannot be substantiated, e.g. a rumour.

It must contain a statement of truth and must be signed by the witness.

When do we produce witness statements?

In EC-S, officers may be asked to produce a witness statement to support other HMRC teams (such as FIS Criminal) or another Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) such as the police and the National Crime Agency. This will usually be in the form of EC-S officers providing information such as registration status, whether HMRC has cancelled the registration, detemined a business/or person is not fit and proper or the compliance history of a registered business.
- Officers must make their own statements in relation to the evidence they can give and no one else.
- The witness statement must only contain facts which can be evidenced and not speculation or hearsay.
- By producing a witness statement, the officer may be called to court to testify. This would include giving a narrative of the facts and evidence in their statement to the court or jury under oath. It’s essential that the statement and testimony only presents the known facts, and the witness believes the evidence and facts to be true to the best of their knowledge.
- Failing to tell the truth may result in a witness being prosecuted. In such a situation a witness could be held in contempt of court or accused of perverting the course of justice, which carries a custodial sentence.
- If a witness notices a mistake in their evidence, it is best to point this out to the judge.
- Witnesses should not be drawn into giving opinion around areas of the Money Laundering, Terrorist FInancing and Transfer of Funds (Information of the Payer) Regulations 2017 (MLR 2017) not covered in their statement. This is a tactic used by defence lawyers to undermine HMRC witnesses and their evidence. To do so can undermine the whole case.
Witness Statement Process

All witness statement requests are made via the EC-S Information Gateway team who review the request. If you receive a request for a witness statement directly from another officer of HMRC or LEA, you must forward it to EC-S Information Requests mailbox.

The Gateway team will then pass this request to the relevant team. For example, if a request is received for a witness statement on whether a business is registered with EC-S, this will be passed to authorisations managers who will then assign it to a caseworker with experience in the relevant sector. Similarly, if a request is for details of the compliance history or outcomes of an intervention of a registered business, this would be passed to oompliance investigations management to be assigned to a compliance officer.

When officers are producing a witness statement, they must only give information based on the facts and evidence they have or know to be true. Caseworkers are not “expert witnesses” and should not give opinion on matters around policy, regulations, or processes etc; any information of this nature must be dealt with by the policy team, who will create their own witness statement on these matters.

The witness statement must then be passed back to the requestor via the Information Gateway.

For civil cases (such as the appeal of a decision going to tribunal and a witness statement is required from the decision maker), these will be discussed with the legal team representing HMRC at the tribunal.

How to complete a criminal Witness Statement (MG11)

Filling out the Statement

The MG11 (witness statement template) must be filled out correctly. There are set boxes that must be completed such as:
- Name – This should be the officers full name, including any middle names.
- Age of the officer – It is sufficient to record ‘over 18’.
- The URN/CAN number – This will be the case reference which will normally be provided as part of the request. If not, you may need to ask what the correct case reference is from the person requesting the statement.
- Occupation – This should always be ‘Officer of HM Revenue & Customs’ (irrespective of grade).
- Total number of pages should always be accurate of the pages when the statement is completed.
The witness must sign their name:
- after the perjury clause (in the first box where it asks for a signature at the top of the MG11),
- after the last word on their statement, and
- at the bottom of each page of the statement.
A countersignature is not required if it is a digital statement with an electronic signature by the officer. Where an electronic signature is used, the witness statement must be sent from that offers email address to verify this. This should still be sent to the EC-S Information Gateway Team to pass on.

Digital/Typed Statements

As most of our witness statements will be done digitally, there are some other factors that must be adhered to:
- The font should always be Verdana.
- The font size should always be size 10.
- The text on the body of the statement should all be double spaced (2.0 line spacing).
- The font style should be regular (not bold or italic – unless it is needed for referencing etc).
- The final version of the MG11 document but be saved in PDF format before being sent back to the requestors.
- The PDF should be named in the following format: “MG11_surname_firstname_ dd_ mm_yy_”.
Producing Documents and Exhibits

It may be necessary to produce documents to accompany the witness statement to demonstrate evidence or provide further information. For example, officers may exhibit items that they have found during a search or be asked to exhibit documents relevant to a particular case.

If the witness statement is being requested on a particular case, it may be that the requestor asks for these exhibits which may include correspondence between HMRC and the business etc.

It is important that you only provide the information or documents that are being requested and ensure any information or documents are disclosable. Any information regarding internal processes or systems (e.g. Centaur) or sensitive material (e.g. intel) must be redacted.

These exhibits must be marked on the statement with the officer’s surname and a number.

For example, if you were detailing a business which had its registration cancelled and you were requested to provide the Notice of Cancellation, the statement would read something like:

“The full details of the cancellation of the registration can be found in the Notice of Cancellation.

I produce a copy of the Notice of Cancellation marked as Exhibit SURNAME001.”

If there are multiple documents you will name them following this method (e.g., SURNAME002, SURNAME003).

Any supporting exhibits and documents must also be in PDF Format and titled to match what they are marked as on the statement (i.e., SURNAME001 etc.).

You may want to check with the legal team how they would like the statement to be laid out and exhibits referenced to.

General and Narrative Witness Statements

Where EC-S is asked to provide Witness Statements about general matters, e.g., EC-S’ policies, businesses obligations under the MLR 2017 etc, the first point of contact for a statement will be the EC-S policy team.

The witness statement will then be allocated to whoever is best placed to deal with it: e.g., if the statement is regarding narrative on Hawalas, it will be allocated to the money service business & high value dealer policy team.

Narrative witness statements are made by people who have been involved in some way or have seen the events at issue. These describe the involvement or event ideally in a broadly chronological way. Narrative statements can be made by both HMRC officers and third-party witnesses.

Third Party Witness Statements

Third party witness statements are drafted on behalf of third parties that are witnesses outside of HMRC who can provide evidence which is capable of having an impact on the matters of the case. For example, a member of the public who was on a business premises when a cash seizure was carried out.

Third party witness statements are usually drafted by an officer, who will be more familiar with the structure of a witness statement and the rules of evidence.

Detailed guidance on third party witness statements is available in the FIS Handbook.

Written Evidence in Tribunals

During a tribunal hearing, witnesses can be asked to provide their evidence. This can come from either side in the dispute. Generally, the legal team for HMRC will determine who they need to provide evidence and will request it from the officer. For example, HMRC can use the decision maker in the case to demonstrate how a compliance check was handled to establish behaviour. The business can also provide evidence on how their conclusions are different to what HMRC have established in their investigations.

Written evidence, including witness statements, will be provided to the Tribunal to consider. This is a form of physical evidence on which a judgement can turn. A lack of written/documentary/physical evidence that HMRC can rely on can lead to a judgement in favour of the business, where HMRC cannot prove the basis of their conclusions.

(This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000)

Witness Statements Guidance and Links
- The FIS handbook contains detailed information on Witness Statements.
- FIS Handbook – Third Party Witness Statements .
- MG11 Witness Statement Template.
- Appeals reviews and tribunals guidance (sharepoint.com) (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/appeals-reviews-and-tribunals-guidance).
- HMRC Legal Group - Witness Statements in the First-tier Tribunal (Tax chamber).
- HMRC Legal Group – Evidence Postcard.