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August 27, 2007
The Children's Database
Another mess in the making:
The database, which goes live next year, is to contain details of every one of the 11 million children in the country, listing their name, address and gender, as well as contact details for their GP, school and parents and other carers. The record will also include contacts with hospital consultants and other professionals, and could show whether the child has been the subject of a formal assessment on whether he or she needs extra help.
It will be available to an estimated 330,000 vetted users. Some of those allowed to check records, such as head teachers, doctors, youth offender and social workers, are uncontroversial, but critics have questioned why other potential users, such as fire and rescue staff, will have access to the database.
330,000 people with access? That'll be nice and secure then, eh?
August 27, 2007 in Your Tax Money at Work | Permalink
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Comments
The fact that the politicians won't allow their own kids' records to be on the system tells us all we need to know.
Posted by: Ed | Aug 27, 2007 9:40:49 AM
Ed's right: would seem to be to be a tacit admission that the database is indeed insecure. Thus a tacit admission that it breaches the Human Rights Act (right to liberty and security, right to respect for private life).
I've said it before, and I think it is worth repeating: the HRA is the one piece of legislation that retards New Labour's authoritarian tendencies. Thank God it was New Labour that introduced it, since if it was Tory legislation it would be abolished.
Posted by: Kay Tie | Aug 27, 2007 10:45:27 AM
We're assuming that it is the number of users that will cause the main security hole (don't get me wrong I expect it to be cracked within weeks by the usual social engineering route). This assumes that there is a security model, given the MTAS fiasco that might not be such a good assumption to make.
Posted by: chris | Aug 27, 2007 11:32:05 AM
"This assumes that there is a security model, given the MTAS fiasco that might not be such a good assumption to make."
But surely they will have 'learned lessons'..? After all, they are always telling us they have....
Posted by: JuliaM | Aug 27, 2007 11:51:56 AM
2010 is coming.
Like all the new government databases, security and privacy is a secondary concern, and the ruling elite and their funding cabal will be excluded from them all.
Like communism, they are just for the masses.
Posted by: IanP | Aug 27, 2007 12:45:34 PM
But surely they will have 'learned lessons'..? After all, they are always telling us they have....
To paraphrase Peter Cook - Yes they have learned the lessons, and they can repeat them exactly.
Posted by: Chuckl | Aug 27, 2007 5:36:06 PM
"Some of those allowed to check records, such as head teachers, doctors, youth offender and social workers, are uncontroversial". Not in my book they're not. Just one more reason we shall not be returning to the UK anytime soon. (Yes, we obviously are guilty and have something to hide).
Posted by: DocBud | Aug 28, 2007 1:16:26 AM
Exactly, If anyone's to have access to that info, I'd much rather it be emergency services people than social workers - and this is coming from a guy whose life was made a hell of a lot better by CPS intervention at an early age.
Posted by: Agammamon | Aug 28, 2007 3:20:46 AM
