NHS – data requirements

The data requirements for the 2012/13 NFI exercise are set out in the table below – ‘Data requirements England – NHS participants’. There are a number of points to note in relation to this exercise:

• A number of the data sets are classified as core (mandatory)
• Foundations Trusts and Special Health Authorities can participate in NFI voluntarily
• The requirements of the code of data matching practice 2008 in relation to fair processing notices should be adhered to. Liaise with your own Data Protection Officer if you require any clarification.
• The data submission section provides details on how to upload data securely. This is the only acceptable method.
• In cases where the NHS payroll provider submits data direct to the Audit Commission on behalf of the NHS body, it is the NHS bodies’ responsibility to ensure that the payroll provider receives full and timely instructions about this requirement and that employees are notified in line with the fair processing requirements.

Experience from previous NFI exercises has shown that Trade Creditors standing and payments history data is a complicated specification so extreme care should be taken when extracting the data otherwise the quality of the output can be severely affected.

Data requirements England – NHS participants

There is a separate data specification for each data set collected for the National Fraud Initiative. These specifications can be accessed from the detailed data specifications table.

Body	Core
Strategic Health Authorities Primary care trusts NHS Trusts	Payroll Trade creditors’ payment history and Trade creditors’ standing data
Foundation Trusts (FT’s) and Special Health Authorities (SHA’s) Participation is voluntary for FT’s and SHA’s. For further info please see the Foundation Trusts page.	Payroll Trade creditors’ payment history and Trade creditors’ standing data