Published on: 25 August 2022

South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust is required to protect the public funds it administers. It may share information provided to it with other bodies responsible for auditing, or administering public funds, or where undertaking a public function in order to prevent and detect fraud.

The Cabinet Office is responsible for carrying out data matching exercises. Data matching involves comparing sets of data such as the payroll records of a body against other records held by the same or another body to see how far they match. The data is usually personal information. The 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 another explanation until an investigation is carried out.

We are a mandatory participant in the Cabinet Office’s National Fraud Initiative; a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. We are required to provide particular sets of data to the Minister for the Cabinet Office for matching each exercise, as detailed here on the www.gov.uk website. For further information on how the Trust uses your information, please refer to the Trust’s Fair Processing Notice.

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 GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). Data matching by the Cabinet Office is subject to a code of data matching practice, also available on the www.gov.uk website.

The Cabinet Office has published its Data Privacy notice, which sets out how the Cabinet Office will use your personal data and your rights. The notice is made under Article 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

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.

We want you to know that we take privacy very seriously. Please be assured that we will always manage your data securely and responsibly.

For further information on data matching at this organisation, please contact the Counter Fraud team on 0191 441 5936 or email counterfraud@audit-one.co.uk