News emerged over the weekend that the Government is implementing plans to free up the flow and access of information between Whitehall departments and government agencies in a bid to make public services run more efficiently. The FT reported that this means that the public will only have to inform the government once if they change address, when normally would have to contact multiple departments such as the DVLA, local council and tax office.
Quality newspaper the Independent reported that civil liberties groups were in uproar as the plans were the thin edge of the information wedge, and are concerned the government can and will extend the range of shareable information as it sees fit.
Plans for debating the issue through 100 member strong citizen panels were also mooted as a means of “deliberative democracy” in an attempt to allay fears. The Guardian was also quick to point out that rumors for a “single massive database” were not accurate and that the announcement was just a means of “seeking public support to allow existing systems to exchange data.”
The FT also reported that the Government will keep in place current safeguards on sharing medical, tax and criminal records, whilst the Mirror, Guardian and Independent reported concerns from opposition parties that it was a chance for “bureaucrats to snoop” whilst Shami Chakrabarti, Liberty Group Director, the human rights group argued “This half-baked proposal would allow an information free-for-all within government – ripe for disastrous errors, and ripe for corruption and fraud.” The Daily Mail cited shadow Home Secretary David Davis criticism of the government’s record of database management such as failures in the Sex Offenders register and more recently the tracking of criminal records from overseas.
The Independent meanwhile devoted its entire front page to the issue and was slightly less hysterical than the tabloids with its sinister Big Brother themed coverage.
The broadsheet in a tabloid's clothes pointed out that Britain has “the world's most ambitious identity scheme, as well as a rapid expansion of the DNA database. Details of all children will be held in a single register to be launched next year, medical records are being transferred to a central NHS database and plans are being examined to track motorists' movements by satellite,” the Indie grimly reminded us.
In a sober effort for balance, their commentator Johann Hari questions in his accompanying article “When the Government acts, why do we always assume there is something to fear?” asking for a little bit of calm and consideration to the matter.
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