​​​​​​​National Fraud Initiative

Privacy notice

Data matching under the National Fraud Initiative

Hart District Council is required by law to protect the public funds it administers. 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.

The Cabinet Office is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises.

Data matching

We participate in the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative. This is a data-matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud against us and organisations in the public sector.

Data matching involves comparing computer records held by us - which will usually contain personal information - against other computer records we hold or are held by others, to see how far they match.

Computerised data matching 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.

Use of data and consent

The legal basis for processing is legal obligation.

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 current data protection legislation.

Data to be provided

We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise. The data specifications for the NFI 2022-24 exercise can be found on the NFI webpages.

Under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014, we are a mandatory participant in the NFI and consequently are required to provide the following data sets to the Cabinet Office as part of the data matching exercise:

  • creditors history
  • creditors standing data
  • Council Tax
  • Housing Benefit claimants
  • payroll
  • resident parking permits
  • taxi driver licences
  • electoral register

Sharing your information

Data will be submitted to the Cabinet Office and shared with other NFI participants including public and private sector organisations.

Data retention

Data extractions prepared for submission to the NFI and data downloads from the Cabinet Office are held by us until the next NFI exercise commences. In addition, progress reports concerning the results of participation in the NFI are presented to our Audit Committee. The Cabinet Office have their own NFI privacy notice and retention periods.

Your rights

Should you wish to raise any concerns about how we have processed your personal data you can contact the data protection officer using the contact details on this page.

You also have the right to contact the Information Commissioner.

Changes to this privacy notice

We will regularly review and update this privacy notice to comply with changes in Data Protection legislation and/or NFI requirements. This notice was last updated on 1 February 2024.

Our main privacy notice is available on our website.

Find out more

Further information about the NFI process can be found on the NFI webpages. This includes the Code of Data Matching Practice, which was approved by Parliament in September 2018.