Soca has made successful use of controversial data sharing powers provided in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act to identify 21 cases of tax credit fraud.

Soca's first annual report says: ' The information provisions of the Act were used to receive bulk data from another government department which was then matched against Soca suspicions.'

The project revealed the identities of 21 deceased people being used in tax credit fraud and the use of a deceased person’s identity for other criminal activity, which is now being investigated.

Soca says new information flows from both law enforcement and private sector partners have allowed them to compare data more effectively.

The Serious Crime Bill, currently being debated in parliament, proposes to extent the power of law enforcement authorities to perform 'data-mining techniques'.

Civil rights groups have objected to the measures on the grounds that they breach the Data Protection Act.