Fenland District Council

The software system used by the Service to operate its premises database could not easily provide the data required for Agency monitoring returns. This information had been gathered and collated by a combination of manual data retrieval from hardcopy records and extensive cross-referencing of various lists and reports run from the system. The auditors were informed that the IT system had been reviewed and that new software was due to be installed from July 2004.

The database did not have adequate systems to safeguard the data held and there were no practical restrictions on any individual's ability to delete and amend data once access to the system had been gained.

Information entered onto the system by officers appeared generally to be accurate. Although some errors were identified in the Service's monitoring returns relating to inspections, these appear to have arisen from the practical difficulties entailed in deriving and collating the required data, a complication with the coding system and some transcription errors. The figures provided by the Service for complaints, sampling, revisits and formal enforcement actions appeared to accurately reflect actual activity levels.

The numbers of inspections reported by the Service as having been carried out appeared to be accurate, but these figures could not be reconciled with the Authority's planned inspection programmes. The audit also identified some minor inconsistencies between the inspection data provided by the Service in its official returns and that reported to Members for the same periods. This was apparently due to the 2 sets of data being derived from the system by use of different report parameters.

Although some internal data validation checks were being undertaken when the returns were collated, these needed to be further developed to include more proactive checks and for these measures to be reflected fully in the documented internal monitoring procedures.