UK National Fraud Initiative and Information Sharing

The Council is participating in a National Fraud Initiative which is a data matching exercise run by the Audit Commission to identify fraudulent and erroneous payments from the public purse.

The Council will provide Council Tax Single Person Discount and Electoral Register data to the Audit Commission for cross-system comparison for the prevention and detection of fraud.

The authority is under a duty 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.

Information sharing can occur in order to ensure that the council achieves its aims of delivering more efficient public services that are coordinated around the needs of the individual concerned.

As a result, in order to protect vulnerable adults the Council’s Social Services Department will share information with the Finance Department in order to ensure that committal action for non payment of council tax is only taken against individuals where it is appropriate to do so.