MPs move against data surveillance

A House of Commons committee has demanded the government adopt a data minimisation strategy to reduce the risk of Britain becoming a "surveillance society".

The committee's hard-hitting report, which warns of growing public disquiet over data practices, is aimed primarily at the Home Office and Cabinet Office. A series of government data security breaches have given extra force to the report's conclusions.

The committee called for a reassessment of the Data Protection Act and greater powers for Information Commissioner Richard Thomas, including "tougher penalties for negligent information-handling" within government and the private sector.

MPs also want a guarantee there will be no "function creep" over identity cards.

While it did not challenge the government's ID cards policy, the committee said there should be an explicit statement that administrative information collected and stored in connection with the National Identity Register would not routinely be used to monitor individuals.

The report expressed concern at the mushrooming of the national DNA database. It called for the database to be put on a firm legislative footing, to offer individuals a more accessible means of challenging decisions to retain their records, and to minimise the amount of data held.

It also demanded a complete ban on data on children being used for " predictive profiling" to identify future potential criminals.

The report, which took 10 months to draw up, also voiced concern about the amount of information on consumers being amassed in commercial databases.