Annex C: The computer systems
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HM Revenue & Customs’ Citizens Identity Database
This system shares data across HM Revenue & Customs. It passes on any updates relevant to other government departments to the National Insurance Contributions Office’s computer system for onward transfer to the Department for Work and Pensions’ Customer Information System or Departmental Central Index (Annex D). A chronological record of Citizens Identity Database activities enables the reconstruction and examination of any changes made to an individual’s data for up to 90 days after a change has taken place. This is known as obtaining an audit trail. It is for each individual business system within HM Revenue & Customs (that is, the Tax Credit Office, Customer Operations or the National Insurance Contributions Office) to obtain an audit trail when one is needed.
HM Revenue & Customs’ National Insurance Recording System
This computer system is owned and managed by the National Insurance Contributions Office. It receives updates from other HM Revenue & Customs systems via the Citizens Identity Database system. It acts as an interface between HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions, transferring data between HM Revenue & Customs and other government departments. It is possible to carry out and obtain the results of an audit trail going back two years on this system. An amendment made directly on to the National Insurance Recording System by a National Insurance Recording System user would be traceable through the audit trail. However, where the National Insurance Recording System has been updated via the Citizens Identity Database system, it may not be possible to identify who made the amendment even with an audit trail. All historical data is normally stored on the National Insurance Recording System; although it can be deleted, it is not the National Insurance Contributions Office’s normal practice to do so.
HM Revenue & Customs’ National Tax Credit System
The National Tax Credit system is linked to all other HM Revenue & Customs systems internally via the Citizens Identity Database. Any data transferred from the National Tax Credit to the Citizens Identity Database, which may be relevant to other government departments, is passed on via the Citizens Identity Database to the National Insurance Recording System and then on to the Customer Information System (and previously the Departmental Central Index).
The Department for Work and Pensions’ computer systems
Prior to 2005, the Department for Work and Pensions had two key customer information systems: the Personal Details Computer System and the Departmental Central Index. The Department for Work and Pensions replaced these two systems with the Customer Information System between March 2005 and October 2008 with the final migration of data between late 2007 and early 2008. This meant that the previous Departmental Central Index and the replacement Customer Information System systems were running concurrently for some time. The Customer Information System database holds over 90 million records of everyone with a National Insurance number. It is now the primary source of personal details within the Department for Work and Pensions.
