Licensing Data Sharing
Winchester City Council, as the Licensing Authority, is required by law to share information and provide data for the following reasons:
- To 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 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 Cabinet Office currently requires us to participate in a data matching exercise to assist in the prevention and detection of fraud. Winchester City Council is required to provide particular sets of data to the Cabinet Office for matching for each exercise, and these are set out in the Cabinet Office’s guidance, which can be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-fraud-initiative
- To the Home Office for accessing if applicants/current licence holders have the right to work in the UK under immigration law.
- To Defra. Defra may, under contracts or similar agreements, use third party organisations to process data that WCC have provided. This will include the creation and provision of the Taxi and PHV Database to support local authorities' ability to charge in relation to charging Clean Air Zones. These organiations will not be able to use the data for any other purpose and must meet the requirements of the data protection legislation and government's security standards. Further information can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/clean-air-strategy-2019.
This Council may also share information with other Local Authorities and enforcement agencies in the course of its functions as the Licensing Authority for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing.