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The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is a biennial data matching exercise run by the Audit Commission to match electronic data within and between participating bodies to prevent and detect fraud and error.
The Serious Crime Act 2007 gives the Audit Commission statutory powers to conduct data matching exercises by inserting a new Part 2A into the Audit Commission Act 1998, and it is under this Act that we are required to participate in the exercise.
Although the Government has recently announced plans to abolish the Audit Commission, transition to the new arrangements will be subject to primary legislation and in the interim the NFI will continue as planned.
We have participated in the NFI for a number of years by supplying information to the Audit Commission.
The most recent exercise (NFI 2008/09) identified £215 million of fraud and error across the United Kingdom from local government, central government, the NHS and a number of private sector pension bodies.
The Commission’s report on the NFI 2008/09 (opens in a new window) highlights the main issues arising from this latest exercise.
To ensure that personal information is protected the Serious Crime Act 2007 imposes a regulatory regime, alongside existing fair processing and other compliance requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998, and any person or body conducting or participating in the Commission’s data matching exercises must by law, have regard to a statutory Code of Data Matching Practice.
The Code of Data Matching Practice (opens in a new window) has been published by the Audit Commission in consultation with the Information Commissioner and other public bodies.
In discharging our duty to protect tax payers and ensure the public funds we administer are correctly spent, we may also share the information we hold with other organisations, including government departments, local authorities and private-sector companies such as banks solely for the purposes of the prevention and detection of fraud, where the law allows this.
