Email this page
Send this page to a friend.
This page is printer friendly.
MSD/Justice Fines Defaulters Tracing Programme
Annual Report
Purpose: To enable the Ministry of Justice locate people who have outstanding fines in order to enforce payment.
Year commenced: 1998
Features: Data transferred up to 13 times per year by CD.
Justice disclosure to MSD: Justice selects fines defaulters for whom it has been unable to find a current address from other sources (including the IR/Justice Fines Defaulters Tracing Programme), and sends the full name, date of birth and Justice unique identifier number to MSD.
MSD disclosure to Justice: For matched records, MSD supplies the last recorded address it holds, along with the unique identifier information originally provided by Justice.
2010/11 activity:
| Match runs | 1 |
| Records sent for matching | 14,793 |
| Possible matches identified | 2,613 |
| Notices of adverse action | 2,479 |
| Challenges | 33 |
| Successful challenges | 5 |
| Collection instituted | 819 |
| Amount paid or settled | $121,884 |
Commentary: The sole match run was undertaken in February 2011. This is the first match run since June 2009 because of system issues at Justice, and system changes at MSD.
This year we completed a formal review of this programme under s.106. We concluded that the programme provides Justice with significant recoveries and the authority to operate conferred by section 126A of the Social Security Act 1964 should be continued.
Compliance: Compliant
Technical information
| Information matching provision | Social Security Act 1964, s.126A |
| Year authorised | 1996 |
| Programme type | Locating people |
| Unique identifiers | Personal Profile Number |
System description
Up to 13 times per year, Justice uses an encrypted CD to send details of fines defaulters whom they have lost contact with to MSD. The defaulters eligible for selection include those where Justice does not have a current address, and no current arrangement to pay is in place. Justice sends the full name, date of birth, and Justice unique identifier number.
MSD attempts to match the fines defaulter information with beneficiary full name and date of birth information held in MSD files. For matched records, MSD returns an encrypted CD to Justice with the last known address of beneficiaries successfully matched. This programme is used in locating fines defaulters where no successful collection activity resulted from the similar IR/Justice programme.
Historical activity
| 2005/06 | 2006/07 | 2007/08 | 2008/09[1] | 2009/10 | |
| Match runs | 6 | 14 | 10 | 5 | No activity |
| Records sent for matching | 222,961 | 408,955 | 372,918 | 70,941 | |
| Possible matches identified | 21,839 | 29,370 | 17,984 | 4,890 | |
| Notices of adverse action | 21,866 | 29,468 | 15,785 | 3,584 | |
| Challenges | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | |
| Successful challenges | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | |
| Collection instituted | 9,979 | 13,286 | 7,562 | 2,557 | |
| Amount paid/remitted | $10,151,695 | $15,075,423 | $10,683,947 | $3,254,392 |
[1] These are final figures ('in progress' figures were provided in the 2008/09 Annual Report).