What an amazing event! Thank you so much for joining us! The speakers at this year’s conference did not disappoint. If you were one of the 443 attendees, we hope you were as pleased with the content as we are!
Annual General Meeting
John Peerless, Chair of the NAFN Executive Board opened the event with the Annual General Meeting. He was delighted to have the current Executive Board elected for a further year and announced a call to action to fill the three vacancies. Some key updates included the re-brand from Membership Fee to Licence Fee and Removal of Associate Members and Associate Membership. All members now have the right to vote in the AGM.
Peter Farrow, Treasurer provided NAFN’s financial position for 22-23 and confirmed reserves would be used to deliver Project Argus (the NAFN Transformation agenda) and the the approval of a five year plan, which addressed the challenge of rising costs along side delivery of a cost effective public sector service.
Highlights from the Leadership Team included a note to all organisations with powers to acquire communications data (CD) to ensure they have a designated Senior Responsible Officer, the restructure of the NAFN service team, challenges created by organisation mergers, the launch of the Introduction to Intelligence Course, results of the cost benefit and value analysis and of course the pride in the service team being shortlisted for the LGC Small Team of the Year award. the same team of under 20 individuals handled intake, which increased by over 8,000 enquiries. The session closed with an update on Project Argus and our aim to provide a more intuitive interface, with dynamic functionality and a personalised user experience, all of which will seek to enhance productivity.
Rt. Hon. Sir Brian Leveson, Keynote Speaker
We are so grateful the Rt. Hon. Sir Brian Leveson took the time to address our members with such an engaging speech. He acknowledged the challenges presented by the IPA vs DPA issue and awaits the outcome of changes to the definition of CD, which may provide additional clarity. He also highlighted the success of the Office of Communications Data Authority.
To further reassure members of the quality service we deliver, he stated: “IPCO and OCDA are strong advocates of the centralised SPoC service provided through NAFN membership…my teams are impressed with the standard and range of training and continual professional development provided by NAFN”. Following his address, he stayed to answer questions from members, which was both welcome and extremely appreciated.
Matthew Jordan-Boyd, Guest Speaker A huge thank you to Matthew Jordan-Boyd, Deputy CEO of the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, shared a great presentation on Fraud in the NHS and a video bringing the subject to life.
Lightening Talks
Mark Johnson, Home Office, Stephanie Toghill, Deputy Chair of the Tenancy Fraud Forum and Alan Bryce Tenancy Fraud Forum delivered some thought provoking talks in the NAFN Debates.
Once again, Mark has supported NAFN members to understand that connected vehicles or Telematics will soon become communications data and can be acquired using the Investigatory Powers Act.
Stephanie Toghill, focused on short term lets, AirBnB and really brought home the current challenges in tenancy fraud and some effective ways to tackle them.
Alan Bryce shared some eye-opening data insights and truly highlighted the need for greater support from central government to tackle tenancy fraud.
The workshops were exceptional and all attendees were engaged and participated well throughout. Chris Gipson and Lois Creed from DLUHC delivered the workshop on grants, risk and fraud prevention and our very own Sarah Cooper delivered a session based on frequently asked questions for IPA vs DPA and other powers.
Our pre-recorded content from Dave Rossi, Director of National Hunter and a number of NAFN sessions have already been viewed by many. They are available until 14 February 2024, so take a look now.