WRITTEN ON September 29th, 2008 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Data nitwittery, Foundation of Trust, What do we want?
Terri points out an article in the Telegraph
Conservatives would scrap controversial ContactPoint child database
A flagship database of every child living in England, which is due to be launched by the government next year, will be shutdown by a Conservative government.
By Andrew Pierce
Last Updated: 6:06PM BST 28 Sep 2008The £224 million ContactPoint database, which has been delayed twice because of security issues, will include the names, ages and addresses of all 11 million under 18s and detailed information on their parents, GPs, and schools.
The Conservatives fear that the database, which will be accessed by 330,000 people working in education, health, social care, youth justice, and the voluntary sector will be exploited by paedophiles. They also believe that there is a real danger of sensitive data being mislaid or lost.
The Tories are also deeply unhappy that the private firm which lost the details of the entire prison population is being allowed to work on the controversial project.
Hurrah. This is a non-partisan blog, but it is instructive what happens whan a political party speands a few years having to listen, and to work out what people want. It’s a big step forward from the people who introduced the CSA.
Indeed. They renewed their commitment to scrap the ID scheme ths morning, too. Given there’s possibly a couple of years before they are in a position to form a government, I plan to keep on bending their ears. Who knows what good sense they could be committed to by their manifesto if they are encouraged to think a bit more about the public consequences of (and political opportunities presented by) the present government’s IT inanity.