Value Added Tax legislation which gave rise to the obligations imposed by tax and default surcharge assessments, penalty notices and notices to provide security were all within the scope of Art.6(1) of the European Convention on Human Rights in that they were at least "civil" and were not excluded on account of their being obligations of a public law nature. However, none of the three types of "penalties", namely, default surcharges, misdeclaration and late registration penalties, could properly be classed as "criminal charges" within the same article of the Convention.

V&DTr (Stephen Oliver QC (Chairman))

30/05/2002