Honest limitation up front: the NFI publishes no per-council data. The Cabinet Office / PSFA reports (data/NFI_report_2022-24.pdf, data/NFI_report_2020-22_dec2022.pdf) contain only national totals; per-council match outcomes live in the secure NFI web application and reach the public, if at all, through each council's own audit-committee papers (see data/samples/). So Section 1 is essentially empty at council level; Section 2 lists what a bespoke collection would yield.
Per-council: nothing from the central publications. What can actually be extracted, all at England (or UK/nation) level per biennial exercise:
| Variable | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|
nfi_total_outcomes_england_gbp |
Total outcomes (detected + estimated future losses prevented), e.g. £477.5m for 2022–24 | Report front section / Appendix 2 |
nfi_outcomes_by_risk_area_gbp |
Detected / estimated-prevented / total, by risk area | Appendix 2 (p.32, 2022–24 report), with 2020–22 comparators |
nfi_total_matches |
Number of matches per exercise (e.g. 309,593 in 2022–24) | Trend table |
nfi_recovery_rate_pct |
Recovered vs not-recovered split of detected overpayments | Recovery-rates page |
Risk areas in Appendix 2 (2022–24, England, £m total): Pensions 179.5; Council tax single person discount 51.9; Housing benefits 29.7; Blue badges 26.8; Housing waiting lists 17.6; Trade creditors 11.1; Housing tenancy 7.8; Council tax reduction 7.4; Concessionary travel passes 4.0; Right to Buy 1.7; Business validation 1.0; Payroll/Procurement 0.2; Pilots 0.7; Other 0.4; Private sector 137.8; residential care homes (nil 2022–24). Note: totals mix cash detected with estimated future losses prevented (methodology in Appendix 3) — not pure recovered money.
These support national context/benchmarks only, not a per-council metric.
Source routes: (a) scrape ~300+ councils' audit/governance committee papers (ModernGov etc.) for biennial NFI update reports — the data/samples/ Audit Wales papers show the typical shape (per-council matches by data-match area, matches in "key reports"; outcomes usually only at national/Wales level, so outcome values are patchier); (b) FOI/data request to the PSFA (England) or Audit Wales / Audit Scotland / NIAO for per-participant extracts from the NFI web application.
| Variable | Formula | Source route |
|---|---|---|
nfi_matches_total |
Data matches released to the council per exercise (Bridgend 2024–25: 17,255) | (a) committee papers or (b) PSFA/audit-body request |
nfi_matches_by_area |
Matches per data-match area (SPD, creditors, blue badges, payroll, …) | same |
nfi_key_report_matches |
Matches in "key reports" with historically high hit rates | (a) — present in Welsh sample papers |
nfi_matches_investigated / nfi_matches_closed |
Matches given a closed status per exercise; investigation rate = closed / total | (b) — web-app statuses; some committee papers |
nfi_outcomes_gbp |
Fraud/overpayment value recorded per exercise (detected + estimated prevented) | (b) preferred; (a) where councils publish their own figure |
nfi_detected_gbp |
Actual detected fraud/error only (excluding estimated prevention) | (b) |
nfi_outcomes_per_million_spend |
nfi_outcomes_gbp / (service_expenditure_gbp / 1e6) using net revenue expenditure from ../01-revenue-outturn |
derived |
nfi_investigation_rate |
nfi_matches_closed / nfi_matches_total |
derived |
nfi_hit_rate |
nfi_outcomes_gbp / nfi_matches_investigated |
derived |
Comparability caveats for any per-council build: outcome values mix actual and estimated elements; investigation effort is discretionary (risk-based, resource-driven), so low outcomes can mean low fraud or low investigation; periods and formats vary across committee papers; Wales/Scotland/NI run parallel exercises under their own audit bodies.
One file per variable in variables/; frontmatter kind marks each as extracted (national publications) or prospective (per-council, bespoke collection only).
Extracted (national-level only):
nfi_total_outcomes_england_gbpnfi_outcomes_by_risk_area_gbpnfi_total_matchesnfi_recovery_rate_pctProspective (per-council, no central publication):