"Scrap the child database" say Lib Dems (Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats)

Wantage and Didcot Liberal Democrats <info@wantagelibdems.org.uk>

"Scrap the child database" say Lib Dems

January 27, 2009 10:52 AM

Any one of 390,000 people could breach the security of the new database of children

A new national database of children, called ContactPoint, has already cost the British taxpayer £224 million. But the Government has now admitted that 390,000 people will be entitled to access it. Said Wantage and Didcot Lib Dem spokesman Alan Armitage, who worked for eight years as a computer security specialist: "This is another IT disaster waiting to happen. It will do nothing to protect children, and leakages of information about vulnerable children are practically guaranteed. The database should be scrapped now."

Mr Armitage explained: "The weak points in any security system are the people, not usually the technology. With 390,000 potential holes in this security system, they may as well put the whole thing on the Internet now. There have been so many losses of personal data by Government departments and contractors in the recent past that we can have no confidence that they know what they are doing."

The ContactPoint system was initiated in response to a recommendation of the Laming Inquiry into the death in 2000 of 8-year-old Victoria Climbié. It was clear during that inquiry that there was no lack of information about Victoria held by the numerous public agencies which had had contact with her and her family. But nobody had seen it as their responsibility to raise the alarm. Similarly, in the recent case of Baby P, there seems to have been no shortage of information sharing by the professionals.

ContactPoint will hold information about eleven million children including records of any contact with social workers or youth workers, any special educational needs, and details of their parents, GP and school. Those to whom the Government intends to give access include local authority officials, charity workers, youth workers and career advisors.

Said Mr Armitage: "The notion that expensive computer systems can make decision making about complex human problems easier, is just absurd. The truth is that Labour believes that information is power, and that the more information they have about each one of us, the more they will be able to control us. Lib Dems are fundamentally opposed to this, and believe strongly in individual rights and freedoms."