IT systems, ID cards, privacy .....and kids data bases

A significant report about these issues has just been released and gained media attention. As a colleague notes:

'These are related to the NHS IT programme. They were inspired by ministers' belief that NHS IT was working, and so could be 'rolled out' to other areas of 'e-government'. If experience - and the courts - support [the view arrived at in the report] that the children's databases are both unsafe and illegal, this will have dire effects on CfH [Connecting for Health]. NHS computing will fail similar safety tests, and keeping children's records on central NHS systems without the consent of both children and their parents will be unlawful. The NHS must therefore provide for treating dissidents without the details being recorded on central systems.'

Next Tuesday, 29th November a national campaign will be launched to persuade people to opt out of NHS central data collection at a meeting of No2ID at Imperial College [London]. The meeting publicity has also been released.