National Fraud Initiative

The National Fraud Initiative (NFI) is a Cabinet Office requirement which involves matching electronic data within and between public and private sector bodies to prevent and detect fraud. These bodies include police authorities, local probation boards, fire and rescue authorities as well as local councils and a number of private sector bodies.

Public sector bodies are required to submit data to National Fraud Initiative on a regular basis, usually every two years. The SWLFP collect and submit the data on behalf of the London Borough of Merton, Sutton, Richmond, Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kingston.

The SWLFP will progress the returned NFI reports and matches for each of our partner organisations, working with the relevant departments to identify fraud and error. The current NFI project runs until June 2026 with work ongoing across the partnership. Monthly reports are provided to the directors to provide updates on the progress made.

Data protection legislation requires NFI participants to tell individuals that their data will be processed. Providing this information is known as a privacy notice and can be found on each individual borough's website.

View privacy notices

You can view the privacy notice for any of the five authorities below:

• Merton Council

• Richmond Council

• Sutton Council

• Wandsworth Council

• Kingston Council

Pilot scheme

Some of our authorities are currently participating in a pilot scheme with the Public Sector Fraud Authority which involves the secure sharing of social housing tenancy data to identify fraudulent sub-letting of social housing.

As part of this data matching exercise, some data processing may involve transfers outside the UK. Where this occurs, it is protected by an adequacy decision or a contract that includes the UK International Data Transfer Agreement (IDTA) clauses to ensure your data receives the same level of protection as it does in the UK.