Written question asked by Caroline Spelman (Conservative) on Thursday, 30 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 6 May 2009. It was answered by Lord Khan of Tooting (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 May 2009 on behalf of the Audit Commission.

Councillors

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 17 March 2009, Official Report, column 1101W, on councillors: Arun, whether the Audit Commission plans to require local authorities to disclose the bank account details of councillors held in their payroll databases as part of the National Fraud Initiative exercise for 2010-11.

Answer: This is an operational matter for the Audit Commission and I have asked the chief executive of the Audit Commission to write to the hon. Member direct.Letter from Steve Bundred, 6 May 2009:"Your Parliamentary question outlined above has been passed to me to reply.""The 2010/11 National Fraud Initiative will collect data from local authorities beginning in October 2010. All local authorities are required to submit payroll data for all of their employees and councillors and the data fields submitted will include bank account numbers and sort codes. This information is used to detect undeclared bank accounts in circumstances where for example a benefit claimant has failed to declare income, but the actual account details are not disclosed. Data matches merely indicate whether two bank accounts are the same or different and neither the sort code or the account number is reproduced.""A copy of this letter will be placed in Hansard."

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 492 c231-2W; 273473
Session: 2008-09
Related items: Councillors: Arun
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Councillors Bank services
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk