National Fraud Initiative

By law Lancaster City Council is required to protect the public funds it administers.

That's why we are an active participant in the National Fraud Initiative, a statutory nationwide drive to crack down on the amount of public money lost each year because of fraud.

As part of the initiative during 2008/09 we are sharing information provided to us with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds, in order to prevent and detect fraud.

Known as data matching, this involves comparing computer records (usually personal information) against other computer records held by the same or another body. This allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified.

Where a match is found it indicates that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation, although no assumption is made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation has been carried out.

For more information on the National Fraud Initiative and Lancaster City Council's part in it visit www.lancaster.gov.uk/nfi or email nfi@lancaster.gov.uk.