My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (lain Wright) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

The Secretary of State has today laid the Audit Commission's Code of Data Matching Practice as required by Part 2A of the Audit Commission Act 1998, as amended by the Serious Crime Act 2007.

The code governs how all organisations which participate in the Audit Commission's data-matching exercises, including the commission itself, are required to have regard to it. The code also sets out best-practice standards for the Audit Commission and those participating organisations.

The Audit Commission's national fraud initiative is a data-matching exercise aimed at detecting fraud. The new powers, as conferred by the Serious Crime Act 2007, allow the commission to build on its previous exercises by making it available to a wider range of bodies.