Transparency data

Data Usage Agreement: Testing the feasibility of data matching for improved fuel poverty targeting

Published 20 March 2025

This Data Usage Agreement between HMRC and Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy was agreed and put in place in 2020.

Conditions of disclosure of information by HMRC  

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) disclose this information to the Department for Business, Energy and Industry Strategy (BEIS) by virtue of the legal basis of section 35 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 for the purposes of defining the age-range of residents in properties in order to provide a more accurate calculation of the income equivalisation factor used for fuel poverty. This data is shared on the condition that BEIS undertake to: 

• move, process and destroy data securely, in line with the principles set out in HM Government Security Policy Framework issued by the Cabinet Office, when handling, transferring, storing, accessing or destroying information 

• only use it for the purposes that it has been disclosed for and ensure that only those with a genuine business need to see the information will have access to it 

• only keep it for the time it is needed, and then destroy it securely 

• not onwardly disclose that information without the prior authorisation of HMRC 

• comply with the requirements in the Government Security Policy Framework and be prepared for and respond to security incidents and to report any data losses, wrongful disclosures or breaches of security relating to information 

• mark information assets with the appropriate security classification and apply the appropriate baseline set of personnel, physical and information security controls that offer an appropriate level of protection against a typical threat profile as set out in Government Security Classifications, and in particular as set out in the Annex – Security Controls Framework to the Government Security Classifications 

• comply with any agreed procedures for the data transfer

BEIS will supply a list of households to HMRC. The data transfer will be via secure email. Once the data is transferred back to BEIS it will be held in a secure Cloud Based Analytical System (CBAS) only accessible to analysts working on the fuel poverty project. All transfers are logged for security monitoring purposes. BEIS will send a list of addresses to HMRC. Each address will have a unique linkage key and an interview date. HMRC will match the addresses at the individual level.

The HMRC Data Cleansing team will then cleanse the list of identifiable fields such as NI number and postcode. Next, HMRC will count the number of residents at each address in the specific age ranges using the cleansed data. The output will be returned to BEIS with the linkage key. HMRC will not return the addresses to BEIS, but will only return the count of the occupants in each of the categories, together with a linkage key.

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

• BEIS will delete the data once analysis is complete, expected to be within 12 months of receipt 

• HMRC is acting as a data controller and BEIS is acting as a data controller 

• if a Freedom of Information (FOI) request relating to this information is made to BEIS, their FOI team will engage with HMRC’s FOI team regarding the potential impact of disclosure 

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

Signatures  

  

This content has been withheld because of exemptions in the Freedom of Information Act 2000.