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Our History; The Creation and Development of a New Service

In the mid-1990s the Audit Commission was working with London councils to address fraud through data-sharing and data-matching. Greater Manchester councils were interested in adopting this approach and discussions were progressed led by Harold Pawsey the Assistant Director of Finance for Tameside MBC.

In 1997, a meeting of local authority representatives from England and Wales took place in Birmingham. Following that meeting, a core group of councils decided to work collaboratively to explore the exchange of intelligence to address fraud across the country. They agreed that a national approach was required progress this initiative.

In response, the National Anti-Fraud Network (NAFN) was established in October 1997 with Harold Pawsey acting as the Chair. Initially, nine councils agreed to participate in the network, each of them providing a Regional Collator. The group went on to secure Government funding to further support local authorities to tackle organised housing benefit fraud.

Over time NAFN has steadily evolved and now provides an extensive range of data and intelligence services to local authorities, other public bodies and housing associations. The organisation has embraced change through innovation and the introduction of new services responding to new legislation and members needs in the context of a rapidly advancing digital world and the ever changing threats from crime and fraud. NAFN is now widely regarded as a centre of excellence for public sector data and intelligence.

The Early Years

In the early years, the NAFN Management Board responded to national concerns raised by the Audit Commission. Addressing the need for a joined up approach to combat cross-boundary fraud was NAFNs key objective. The initial focus was on housing benefit investigations with regular fraud alerts circulated to members but ambitions to extend the service emerged very quickly.

After two years, Government funding was replaced by annual subscriptions from local authority members. Membership grew significantly and NAFN was restructured into five regional offices with Tameside MBC acting as the lead authority.

NAFN began to explore and establish effective links to the Police and other law enforcement agencies to better understand intelligence gathering and dissemination. Services to members were improved as a result of this collaboration and further enhanced by providing access to credit referencing services.

Year	Members	User Accounts	Licence Fee	Enquiries
2000	213	800	£1,000	30,000

Authorised Officers and Automation

The new millennium brought organisational change in response to further growth in membership. During this period many new services were introduced in response to new legislation.

In 2001 NAFN operations were reduced to two regional offices based in Tameside and Brighton. In 2003 NAFN appointed a full-time Director (Geoff Jennings) seconded from the Department of Works and Pensions. Fax/paper based processes were automated, a centralised case-management system was established and a secure web-based portal was introduced.

The Social Security Fraud Act 2001 introduced sweeping powers to address benefit fraud providing access to information held by a wide range of organisations including banks, finance houses, insurance companies, utility companies, credit referencing agencies and the telecommunications sector. NAFN recruited two Authorised Officers in both teams to access this information on behalf of members. By 2005 the NAFN establishment was 13 full-time staff.

NAFNs inaugural Annual General Meeting and Conference took place at the Guildhall in Central London in October 2002.

Introduction of online enquires facilitated automated matching of subjects and/or organisations allowing networking between investigating teams. NAFN began hosting a national database for the recording of housing benefit sanctions along with the DWP Fraud Procedures Manual and a referral service on behalf of the Asset Recovery Agency.

Year	Members	User Accounts	Licence Fee	Enquiries
2000	213	800	£1,000	30,000
2005	342	1,600	£2,000	77,000

One-Stop Shop

The Home Office supported NAFN in introducing a Single Point of Contact Service for local authorities seeking to acquire communications data under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. As a consequence, significant investment was required to upgrade website security and introduce a new national communications data case-management system. The establishment increased from 13 to 26 full-time staff over this period.

NAFN continued to provide access to new data services for members. A key milestone was developing the DVLA Vehicle Keeper Overnight Service, significantly reducing processing and response times from eight weeks to 24 hours.

NAFN introduced a central repository for policies, procedures and legislation and contributed to the development of best practice guides through joint-working with the Home Office, Audit Commission and CIPFA. NAFN also became a member of the National Fraud Authority Information Sharing Taskforce.

Introduction of Unitary Authorities in 2009 impacted on membership because smaller councils were incorporated into larger organisations. However, the number of user accounts and data enquiries continued to grow significantly.

Year	Members	User Accounts	Licence Fee	Enquiries
2000	213	800	£1,000	30,000
2005	342	1,600	£2,000	77,000
2010	336	6,500	£2,254	192,000

Online Services and Organisational Change

This period was one of significant change for NAFN. In 2011 the organisation was re-branded as NAFN Data and Intelligence Services and overall governance was led by a new Chair (Wendy Poole) and Executive Board.

Further changes included moves to broaden NAFNs membership base and new members were attracted from housing associations, NHS trusts and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) who were keen to use the DVLA Overnight Vehicle Keeper Service.

In 2013, following collaborative working with the National Trading Standards Board, NAFN created and hosted a new Sanction Information Database (SiD) capturing all relevant sanctions in this service area. The new system was rolled out the following year.

Also, in 2013 the Government announced its intention to centralised housing benefit fraud investigations creating a new Single Fraud Investigation Service based in the DWP. As a consequence, all local authority housing fraud teams were transferred to the DWP along with 14 staff members from NAFN. The changes were implemented in 2015 with a significant short term reduction in enquiry intake.

Early in 2015 the NAFN Executive Board needed to determine how best to respond to the 50 per cent reduction in intake arising from the transfer of local housing benefit investigation teams to the DWP. Following an options appraisal, the Executive Board decided to close the Brighton office and focus on a single point of delivery based in Tameside, Greater Manchester. A new Head of Service was appointed (Mark Astley) and the establishment reduced to a team of 13 full-time staff.

Despite these major changes, the service offer to members was further improved with the introduction of a dedicated Help Section on the NAFN website and direct online links to the Callcredit and Equifax consumer credit reporting systems. Also, NAFN launched its Intelligence Enquiry service allowing members to conduct searches on-line across its range of data and intelligence to support fraud investigation work.

Year	Members	User Accounts	Licence Fee	Enquiries
2000	213	800	£1,000	30,000
2005	342	1,600	£2,000	77,000
2010	336	6,500	£2,254	192,000
2015	410	10,500	£2,420	211,000

New Challenges, New Opportunities, New Services

The Executive Board updated the NAFN Constitution and governance arrangements and adopted a new service delivery strategy working closely with the new Head of Service to strengthen the operational team. The NAFN ICT infrastructure was outsourced to Rochdale MBC. A Project Manager was appointed to deliver a series of service improvements for members. The Leadership Team was further strengthened with the appointment of a Membership and Communications Manager.

The fee model was reviewed and simplified. The licence fee was reduced to £1,000 with the introduction of modest charges for enquiries that require an input from the NAFN Service Team. Existing direct access to Callcredit and Equifax credit reporting systems were upgraded and an Authorised Officer Service was introduced to support tenancy and council tax fraud investigations.

In response to marketing and promotional initiatives, NAFN began to attract new membership from housing associations and wider public authorities with a significant increase in the number of user accounts. Monthly newsletters and regular alert bulletins were issued to members.

Introduction of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 presented a significant challenge for fraud investigations and the use of personal data. NAFN had already established the National Training and Best Practice Working Group to articulate the concerns of local government and wider public authorities. NAFN lobbied Central Government to ensure that local authorities retained powers to acquire communications data and submitted evidence to a Parliamentary Committee and the Anderson Report (A Question of Trust). The Report recommended that, NAFN should be designated as the Single Point of Contact for all minor users of communications data.

Celebrating 20 Years

In 2017 NAFN celebrated twenty years of successful service delivery to members and organised a well-attended Summit in London. Mark Cheeseman (Cabinet Office) was the keynote speaker and the Executive Board and Service Delivery Team were pleased to share this achievement with a broad range of members.

Since 2017, NAFN has worked closely with partners and key stakeholders to promote and further develop the service offer to members and NAFN is now widely regarded as a key player in supporting criminal investigations through the sharing of data and intelligence.

Links with Central and Local Government have been strengthened through regular communications with the Cabinet Office, Home Office, Local Government Association (LGA) and other departments. NAFN now represents its members on a range of committees and working groups including Fighting Fraud and Corruption Locally.

Collaborative working has led to the introduction of new high-profile national services managed by NAFN. In 2017, investigations into right-to-buy fraud were strengthened through data sharing with National Hunter representing the banking sector. The following year, in partnership with the LGA, NAFN introduced the National Register of Taxi/PHV Licence Revocations and Refusals (NR3). In 2019, acting on behalf of Trading Standards, NAFN became the Single Point of Contact for the National Auto Number Plate Recognition System maintained by the Home Office.

NAFN continues to develop and promote a comprehensive programme of training and webinars to raise awareness, transfer skills and promote good practice. An e-learning package will be rolled out in 2020 to further enhance training initiatives and support continuing professional development for all members.

The organisation’s achievements have begun to be recognised and in 2019 NAFN won its first award: the iNetwork Innovation Award for Effective Information Sharing and Security.

Year	Members	User Accounts	Licence Fee	Enquiries
2000	213	800	£1,000	30,000
2005	342	1,600	£2,000	77,000
2010	336	6,500	£2,254	192,000
2015	410	10,500	£2,420	211,000
2020	433	13,000	£1,600	234,000

Collaboration, Growth and Transformation

The past five years marked a period of exceptional growth and innovation for NAFN, as services continued to evolve, new partnerships were built and impactful solutions continued to be delivered to our members.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, real-time Business Grant Fraud Intelligence Alerts were launched, enabling local authorities to prevent over £50 million in fraud and recover millions in public funds. This initiative, prompted collaboration with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (now Department for Business and Trade), the Insolvency Service and the Cabinet Office, raising NAFN’s national profile significantly. Intelligence reports were shared directly with Ministers, highlighting both the scale of the threat and the proactive measures taken by local authorities to protect the public purse.

Also in 2020, the NAFN Academy was launched, offering members funded access to CPD-accredited e-learning. The first course focused on the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, followed by modules on IPA vs DPA, Introduction to Intelligence and Stop Think Check. These resources have seen strong uptake, reflecting growing member engagement and a shared commitment to professional development.

Celebrating 25 years!

NAFN celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022, marking a quarter-century of service excellence. That year, the Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle (Safeguarding and Road Safety) Act was enacted and NAFN was formally designated by the Secretary of State for Transport, as the host of the National Register of Revocations, Refusals and Suspensions (NR3S). The register, originally developed in collaboration with the Local Government Association, local authorities and the Institute of Licensing, had been used voluntarily since 2018. Due to the impact of the safeguarding initiative, the register became mandatory from April 2023 for all licensing authorities in England to search and add relevant decisions upon receipt of a new or renewal application, reinforcing its role in promoting safer licensing practices.

Collaboration

NAFN’s work was later recognised nationally through multiple award nominations, including the iNetwork Innovation Awards, LGC Awards, Public Sector Counter Fraud Awards and the Tackling Economic Crime Awards. The NAFN Academy was named a finalist for Outstanding Training Initiative and NR3S was shortlisted for the iStand UK Award, reflecting our continued leadership in fraud prevention and public sector innovation.

In 2023 NAFN led an initiative to develop national guidance for communications data applicants, with an underlying agenda to unite the communications data community (law enforcement, other government bodies and local government). In partnership with the College of Policing, IPCO Authorisation and Oversight, the Home Office and HMRC. The Standardising Communications Data Applications initiative brought together the entire CD community for the first time, promoting consistent standards and supporting applicants to produce clear and legally compliant submissions. More than 4,000 people attended the webinars and CPD-accredited e-learning and written guidance received outstanding feedback.

In mid-2025, this initiative was further enhanced when NAFN was invited to support delivery of a dedicated Wider Public Authority day at the International Communications Data and Digital Forensics Conference. The event welcomed over 800 attendees and highlighted the evolving role of Wider Public Authorities in the CD community and the importance of communications data in all types of investigations.

Growth

At the November 2024 AGM, members voted to increase the number of NAFN Executive Board members to 14; approving the recruitment of a number of outstanding new additions increasing diversity, expertise and representation.

In 2025 NAFN reached nearly 500 member organisations, including almost 100% of local authorities in England, over 70 housing associations and a growing number of Wider Public Authorities. We also reached more than 250,000 enquiries being processed annually, demonstrating the scale of our services and the trust placed in us by members.

Transformation

The most ambitious transformation programme to date was also launched this year, Project Argus, which entered its development phase following a successful tender and procurement process. Tizo Ltd was appointed as the solution provider. Member roadshows in March 2025 showcased the system’s potential to deliver faster, smarter, scalable and intuitive service delivery. Project Argus reflects a bold step in shaping NAFN’s future, centred on the evolving needs of our members.

Year	Members	User Accounts	Licence Fee	Enquiries
2000	213	800	£1,000	30,000
2005	342	1,600	£2,000	77,000
2010	336	6,500	£2,254	192,000
2015	410	10,500	£2,420	211,000
2020	433	13,000	£1,600	234,000
2025	477	16,000	£2,070	250,000