COPELAND Council has decided to take part in the Cabinet Office's National Fraud Initiative for 2020.

This means the 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 Cabinet Office is 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 to see how far they match.

This is usually personal information. Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent claims and payments to be identified.

Where a match is found it may indicate 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 processing of data by the Cabinet Office in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under its powers in Part 6 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.

It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under data protection legislation or the General Data Protection Regulation.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller.

All bodies participating in the Cabinet Office’s 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.