Data protection

This page provides information about data protection and the Council's Fair Processing Notice in relation to sharing data as part of the National Fraud Initiative.

Data protection

The Data Protection Act 1988 sets out eight common sense rules known as the 'data protection principles'. These principles require the Council to collect personal information to handle it safely. The law explains that we must:-

• fairly and lawfully process information,
• process information only for limited, specifically stated purposes,
• use the information in a way that is adequate, relevant and not excessive,
• use the information accurately,
• keep the information on file no longer than absolutely necessary,
• process the information in accordance with your legal rights,
• keep the information secure and
• never transfer the information outside the UK without adequate protection

The law provides stronger protection for more sensitive information - such as your ethnic background, political opinions, religious beliefs, health, sexual life or any criminal history. It is enforced by an independent information commissioner, who can take action against any company or governmental body that fails to protect your information or that abuses its right to collect and hold that information. There is more information about data protection on the Directgov web site.

Fair processing notice

We take part in data matching exercises as part of the national fraud initiative to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. This is one of the ways in which we meet our responsibility of promoting economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of public money.

Data matching involves comparing sets of our data, such as the payroll, council tax, business rates or benefits records, against other records held by us or other bodies to see how far they match. The data is usually personal information and is therefore carefully protected by ourselves and other bodies taking part in the process.

Data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims, reductions and payments to be identified. Where a match is found it indicates that there is an inconsistency that 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 processing of personal information by us for data matching exercises is carried out in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1988; specifically under section 29 of that act, we do not require the consent of the individuals concerned. All bodies participating in the data matching exercises receive a report of matches that they should investigate, so as to detect instances of fraud, over or under payments and other errors, to take remedial action and update their records accordingly.