My understanding is that the Audit Commission has the legal authority to
conduct this exercise in the public sector hence the S29 exemption.
First time round in Scotland the exercise was rejected because Audit
Scotland did not have the authority to do it.
If it were to be enforced in the private sector then the similar
legislative authority would be required.
Donald Henderson
Information Security Manager
Perth & Kinross Council
-----Original Message-----
From: This list is for those interested in Data Protection issues
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Steven Elliott
Sent: 13 August 2004 11:51
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [data-protection] National Fraud Initiative 2004/05
Our audit section has just sent out a document relating to the above
initiative, which is essentially a fair processing notice to advise all
our employees that their payroll data will be matched with other payroll
and housing benefit data held by other councils across the country, as
well as internally with our own housing benefit data. There is no
suggestion of consent, and indeed the letter says this is a mandatory
exercise.
The intention of course is to identify overpayments, and where fraud can
be proved, the letter threatens disciplinary action and/or criminal
prosecution. This is a national initiative run by the Audit Commission.
The letter was sent out to ensure they comply with DP, but although I
understand the Section 29 exemption, I am somewhat wary of this kind of
wholesale data matching, especially as I believe a third party company
does the matching, and I have seen no evidence of data sharing
agreements between this company and the Audit Commission as yet,
although I'm sure there must be something in place.
I'm also not sure whether this could be enforced in the private sector,
and if that is the case could see the potential for challenge to this on
a privacy basis under HRA, as it does not seem fair to subject public
sector employees to this and not the private sector.
My ideas on this are by no means crystal, but if anyone has any comments
I would certainly be interested. Any thoughts?
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