Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold the information you have requested.
Questions and final response:
Question 1 – When are you next going through an audit of the national fraud initiative?
The date of National Fraud Initiative Audits is determined by the Cabinet Office, Essex County Fire & Rescue Service (ECFRS) are unaware of any planned audits due for ECFRS.
Question 2 - What current procedures do you have in place such as confirmation of payee against fraud?
I can confirm that Essex County Fire & Rescue Service does hold this information, however the information is exempt from disclosure to you.
The exemption applicable to the information you have requested is:
Freedom of Information Act 2000 (legislation.gov.uk) Section 31 of the Act - Law Enforcement
Section 31(1)(a) - prevention or detection of crime, can protect information on a public authority’s systems which would make it more vulnerable to crime.
It can also be used by a public authority that has no law enforcement function to protect the work of one that does.
This exemption carries a public interest test, and I have set out below the factors I have considered when applying the exemption:
Prejudice
The disclosure of the details of our financial controls could provide information to assist potential fraudsters to bypass or exploit these controls.
Factors in favour of disclosure:
The efficiency and effectiveness of the Authority
Transparency when spending public money
Transparency over decision making
In favour of non-disclosure:
To protect the Authorities systems and network
To protect the information of the residents of Essex
To protect the commercial and environmental information held by the Authority
Public Interest Balancing Test
Having considered the above factors,I believe the public interest is in favour of upholding this exemption. Non-Disclosure is recommended to maintain the security of and effectiveness of financial controls that ECFRS use.
This is our refusal notice in respect of your request.
Question 3 - What is your current confirmation of payee software incumbent product & the renewal date of the contract.
ECFRS does not use a payee software incumbent product.
We hope you find this information useful.
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Incident and other data is published on our transparency site. Incident Data (essexfire.gov.uk).
Please note that the response and data released to you as part of this request will be published on our website http://transparency.essex-fire.gov.uk/.
All requests will be anonymised and no personal information including contact details will be disclosed as part of this process.
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Thank you for your interest in Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, we hope this satisfies your request.
If you are dissatisfied with the handling of your request, you have the right to apply for an internal review. Internal review requests should be submitted within two months of the date of your original email and should be sent to informationgovernance@essex-fire.gov.uk or sent to our postal address: Internal Review, Information Governance Team, Kelvedon Park, Rivenhall, Witham, Essex CM8 3HB.
Please ensure you quote the above reference number in all future communications