Privacy notice

Detection and prevention of crime

We are required by law to protect the public funds we administer. We process and share the information provided to us for the following purposes:

  • council employee payroll
  • council employee pensions
  • electoral register
  • student loans
  • housing
  • Supported care (home residents and care home residents)
  • transport passes, including residents’ parking blue badges
  • insurance claimants
  • housing and council tax benefits
  • licences, e.g. market trader/ operator, taxi driver and personal licences to supply alcohol
  • council tax
  • leisure
  • property (planning, business rates)
  • libraries
  • information provided by external bodies, e.g. utility companies, credit reference agencies and service providers, including registered social landlords

The processing and data sharing is to prevent and/or detect potential fraud and crime, by both conducting our own data matching, as well as sharing this information with other public bodies, such as: the Cabinet Office, the Department for Work and Pensions, other local authorities, HM Revenues and Customs, the police, as well as utility companies, credit reference agencies and service providers/contractors and/or partner bodies, where the disclosure of such information is either:

  • necessary for the purposes of the prevention and/or detection of crime and/or
  • is otherwise necessary to comply with any other legal obligation

Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims, transactions, applications and payments to be identified. Where a match is found and two or more records have contradictory or conflicting information, the inconsistency will require further investigation. No assumption can be made as to whether there is fraud, error or other explanation until an investigation is carried out. Regardless, the data matching process is a proven way of helping to ensure that records are up to date and accurate.