TfW FOI Request - NI numbers_bus Passes

Date issued: 4 October 2019

Thank you for your Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request of 2 October 2019. You requested the following information:

Under what law are you requiring people to supply their national insurance number to you before issuing the new Concessionary Travel Card?

I am writing to confirm that your request has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) and that Transport for Wales (TfW) has completed its search for the information and has the information requested.

Transport for Wales needs personal information including the National Insurance number to help prevent fraud. The National Fraud Initiative is a data matching exercise which has been run every two years since 1996. The National Fraud Initiative in Wales is conducted by the Auditor General under his statutory data matching powers set out in Part 3A of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004. The Wales Audit Office publishes a set of data which it recommends that public authorities collect to prevent fraud. The latest publication is available on the Wales Audit Office website at https://www.audit.wales/publication/national-fraud-initiative-wales-2018-20

The section “Concessionary travel passes – 2018-19 data specification” specifically lists National Insurance number as an important identifier and states that “the data required is for all current adult holders of a concessionary travel pass” and that in regard to the National Insurance number, “it is important to provide this field where available in order to improve the quality of the data matching” for the purpose of assisting in the prevention and detection of fraud.

We fully understand that cardholders are concerned about privacy and confidentiality of personal information. We take privacy extremely seriously and have taken many steps to ensure your data is safe. Our privacy notice provides more information https://tfw.wales/travelcard-privacy-statement

Yours sincerely

Transport for Wales