Participation in the Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative
The council is taking part in a national exercise to support the prevention and detection of fraud.
For the Cabinet Office's national fraud initiative, we are required legally to provide particular sets of information. For employees and councillors, this will mean payroll and expense data is provided to the Cabinet Office.
The initiative is a data-matching exercise which involves comparing records held by one body against other records held by the same or another body to see if they match. This is usually personal information. This data matching allows potentially fraudulent activity, claims, and payments to be identified. Where a match is found, it may indicate that there is an inconsistency that requires further investigation by the council.
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 data protection legislation or the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).
The council is committed to combating fraud wherever it may be found. It is determined to eliminate fraud by those who attempt to obtain money or services from the council to which they are not entitled. In doing so, it will share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds in order to prevent and detect fraud.
You can read more about the Cabinet Office's data matching process and code of practice.