As part of our work in preventing and detecting fraud and prosecuting offenders, we take part in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI). This is a data matching exercise organised by the government every two years.
Every council in England provides information relating to their customers and services. The government matches databases looking for suspicious details - we then investigate the information the government sends back to us.
Consent for data matching
The government's data matching exercises:
- are carried out with 'statutory authority' under Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014
- don't require the consent of the individuals concerned, under the Data Protection Act 2018
However, we inform every individual whose data we include in our National Fraud Initiative (NFI) exercises, in line with data protection legislation and the government's code of practice.
For further information about the government's legal powers and why they data match certain information, see their Fair Processing Notice (GOV.UK).
Security and data matching
We provide the following sets of data to the government:
- council house tenants
- Housing Benefit claimants
- council tax payers
- employees
- voters (the full electoral roll)
- student grant recipients
- Single Person Discount holders (for council tax)
- residents' parking permit holders
- Blue Badge holders
- bus pass holders
- insurance claimants
- market traders
- taxi licence holders
- personal alcohol licence holders
We submit our data using a secure website, avoiding any possibility of information becoming lost.
The government keeps personal data securely during data matching exercises and destroys it afterwards, subject to their Code of Data Matching Practice.
Outcomes of the National Fraud Initiative
See York Open Data for further information about the outcomes of the National Fraud Initiative and our other fraud work.