Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is to provide the United States with sensitive data in return for state-of-the-art fraud detection technology.

Admitting that it cannot build the required systems itself, HMRC has instead opted to provide the US with information likely to create uproar among privacy advocates.

The move was described by the HMRC as "routine", with donation of information securing the chance for HMRC to access the US-built Dartts, a massive and technologically advanced system built for detecting financial irregularities.

There appeared to be several reasons as to why the government decided against creating it's own Dartts-esque system, such as difficulties in finding "somewhere to hold large amounts of data and more analysts to process the data".

Such tasks were described by the HMRC as too "difficult [a] decision in the current climate".

The government is currently thoroughly bogged down by embarrassments over its failures to keep highly sensitive information secret, with some departments being found guilty of breaching privacy rules by bringing sensitive laptops out of Downing Street.

Information to be handed to the US has been described in the Independent as a "regular exchanging of trade data…on UK-US import-export declarations".