Please ensure your teams aware that the council is taking part in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) 2026, a nationwide data matching exercise that helps public bodies prevent and detect fraud.

As part of this statutory exercise, the council is required to provide certain employee data, including names, addresses, National Insurance numbers, email addresses, bank account details and payroll information. The data is shared with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in line with legal requirements under the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. Staff do not need to provide consent for this information to be shared, as participation in the NFI is a legal obligation for public sector organisations.

For more information, colleagues can visit the National Fraud Initiative website or the Knowledge.