Prime Minister Tony Bair has denied that government plans to make more intelligent use of information held by departments will create a Big Brother 'super database' that poses a threat to privacy and civil liberties.
Plans to share information across Whitehall are 'perfectly sensible' and opposition to them is based on a misrepresentation of what is proposed, claims the PM.
No new database is being planned and the row 'is a very good example of how a perfectly sensible thing can be misconstrued', he said at a Downing Street seminar this week.
The prime minister's comments follow the launch this week of a public consultation on improvment of public services which includes questions about government departments and agencies sharing citizen data.
The proposals follow Cabinet Office ministerial committee recommendations in August that datasharing practices switch from the basis that information may not be shared, to the assumption that it can be unless it is specified otherwise.
Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton says what is being proposed is an extension of the private sector practice of asking customers for permission to share information within the government.
'If a person says no, then obviously we have to respect that, but we should be looking at how we improve the joins between different government agencies,' said Hutton.
Opposition parties are largely critical of the proposals. Shadow home secretary David Davies cites database-related problems including the Home Office failure to ensure records on Britons convicted of serious offences overseas are promptly entered on the Police National Computer.
Liberal Democrat Leader Menzies Campbell said: 'State intervention and control expands every day. It is time we put a halt to this.'
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