Reading again the Hansard debates on the data matching provisions within the Audit Commission Act it is increasingly clear that the AC misled Parliament. For in Parliament people said that they had been told that the NFI involved matching data to identify actual inconsistencies, and that councils had to investigate to see whether these arose from fraud OR error. You will realise that the NFI has taken to denying that it assumes that one or the other must apply, and in denying in respect of the CT output that it has ever thought that one or the other must apply, and that there is any requirement that one or the other must apply.
How can Parliament possibly ensure that its laws achieve what they think they will achieve when those advising it routinely provide misleading or inaccurate reports to it?
The other big question is how many more of the NFI exercises are base upon mistakes like the 'single person discount' mistake?
How many people get odd phone calls or letters from fraud investigators on fishing trips within fishing trips who are clearly badly briefed about the legal situation they are in?
Only a full review will reveal the extent of NFI incompetence, and I for one doubt that there will be any political will to embark on such a review: the scale of the injustice and maladministration is already somewhat difficult to comprehend, involving as it does hundreds of thousands of innocent entitled voters and their families.
