The trustees of the schemes are required to ensure that pensions are paid only to those persons who are entitled to receive them and to protect the schemes’ assets for the benefit of all members.

To help in these aims, the trustees carry out regular existence checks and our pension schemes  take part in the Audit Commission’s National Fraud Initiative. This is run every two years and is designed to enable various bodies, including pension schemes, to match their data in order to prevent and detect fraud. Computerised data matching allows potentially fraudulent payments to be identified. Where a match is found it indicates that there is an inconsistency which requires further investigation. Our data is matched against those of the General Register Office to check for deaths which haven’t been notified to us so pension payments can be stopped to persons who have died and allow us to pay unclaimed benefits to dependants.

Our participation in the National Fraud Initiative assists in the prevention and detection of fraud against BAE Systems pension schemes. We participate on a voluntary basis and provide the Audit Commission with particular sets of data for matching as set out in the Audit Commission’s guidance. The use of data by the Audit Commission in a data matching exercise is carried out with statutory authority under its powers in Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998. It does not require the consent of the individuals concerned under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Data matching by the Audit Commission is subject to a Code of Practice. This may be found here.

For further information on the Audit Commission’s legal powers and the reasons why it matches particular information, see click here.

For further information on our participation in this exercise contact David Newman (or telephone 01252 383567).