National Fraud Initiative 2010-2011
This authority is required by law to protect the public funds it
administers. It may share information provided to it with other
bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in
order to prevent and detect fraud.
The Audit Commission appoints the auditor to audit the accounts
of this authority. It is also responsible for carrying out data
matching exercises.
Data matching involves comparing computer records held by one
body against other computer records held by the same or another
body. This is usually personal information. Computerised data
matching allows fraudulent claims and payments to be identified.
Where a match is found it indicates 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.
The Audit Commission currently requires us to participate in a
data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of
fraud. The Audit Commission requires this authority to provide
information it holds for this purpose. We are required to provide
particular sets of data to the Audit Commission for matching for
each exercise, and these are set out in the Audit Commission’s
handbooks, which can be found at Audit-commission.gov.uk/nfi/ (external
link).
The use of data by the Audit Commission in a data matching
exercise is carried out with statutory authority under its powers
in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998. It does not require
the consent of the individuals concerned under the Data Protection
Act 1998.
Data matching by the Audit Commission is subject to a Code of
Practice (external link).
For a hard copy of this web page please sends a request to
information@carlisle.gov.uk.
To read a fuller description of the NFI exercises please visit
the Audit Commission
website (external link).