Other legal requirements relating to personal information
The National Fraud Initiative (NFI)
We are required by law to protect the public funds we administer.
We may share information provided to us with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function, in order to prevent and detect fraud.
We participate in the Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative, a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. We also participate in the National Fraud Initiative Counter Fraud Hub that matches data locally from other Local Authorities on an ad-hoc basis.
We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise. The Cabinet Office is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises.
Data matching involves comparing computer data held by one body against other computer records held by the same or another body to see how far they match.
This is usually personal information.
This data matching exercise allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified. Where a match is found it may indicate that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation.
No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out.
Read more about the National Fraud Initiative.
The use of data by the Cabinet Office in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under the General Data Protection Regulations 2018.
Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a code of practice - download the code of practice.
More information on the Cabinet Office's privacy notice.