I fail to see why telling people that unless they are willing to see their data shared even further and be made available to even more people or not get help will benifit anyone. How will telling someone that wants help with a drink prblem to tell let all loads of people know about it or dont get help, help family life?

i am concerned about the chap’s comment that data are already routinely exchanged between the NHS and social services:
specificially, is that done only with the consent of the person(s) concerned? if so, that is fine – a person who is in hospital after a fall may be happy with the social services providing him or her with a wheelchair, say – although you would still want strict limits on what data are passed on. but does this also cover non-consensual data sharing? for what purpose? to expose illegal immigrants, benefit frauds? under what conditions? what data are passed on? what about super-sensitive data such as data on hiv status? from the limited info i have seen, this looks like yet another “more data sharing is always best” initiative – and that is bad …

and the lack of proper consultation (i now understand that this is a “review” in which many [selected] people have been informed – but of course not the general public

There’s a fair old discussion about this on the FIPR list which I wont repeat since:
a) it’s a private list and
b) it’s now now routinely read out in Parliament by “Lord” Warner so it’ll probably be in Hansard soon. We want to keep the moral high ground over “Lord” and his posse on matters of confidentiality.

But I believe NHS London has now had two submissions it wasn’t expecting for its non-consultation: one from FIPR and one from the BCS’s UK Computing Research Committee, the latter with the tactful preface:

It is not clear from the document whether you are seeking the views of professional societies but, in view of your imminent deadline for replies, here are some overall comments

That’s an exemplary way to respond to a non-consultation I reckon.

this is quite appalling, and yet another denial of the principle that data collected for one purpose should only be used for that purpose. the fact that there is no real consultation is a further scandal. i continue to be staggered by the arrogance of the authorities …