MPs back data inquiry

A Home Office plan to create an entirely new database of basic citizen information to support national identity cards is just the latest in a string of government projects requiring new data sources.

Existing information held by the Passport Agency and DVLA, while sufficiently accurate to support passport or driving licence applications, is not considered reliable enough for what many experts call the 'gold standard' of identification.

There clearly is a need for a new and highly-authorised database for an application as crucial and potentially far-reaching as ID cards.

But there are a number of other projects underway pursuing the same idea of a definitive central index of basic citizen information.

• The Office of National Statistics is consulting on a multi-million pound plan to create a population register to co-ordinate citizens' details across the public sector. The aim is to hold basic information - name, address, date of birth and unique identifying number - to provide a master index for all other government databases.

• The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Co-ordinated Online Register of Electors (Core) project aims to digitise electoral registers across the country.

• And a key element of the £2.3bn National Programme for NHS IT is the creation of a central data 'spine' of core information providing the required identification to access citizens' health records.

In addition to the various schemes in their early stages, there are a range of databases already in existence which the Home Office plans to use to cross-check initial applications for ID cards and the creation of the gold standard record on the new database.

The Passport Agency and DVLA systems have been named as potential sources of cross-checking information, but there are also national databases already in existence holding NHS numbers, National Insurance details, and tax, child support and benefits information.

This situation raises a number of issues.

First, the unnecessary cost of duplicating projects because of a lack of communication between departments.

Second, data protection considerations - creation of multiple systems for parallel but potentially overlapping purposes, creates the future risk of contravening data protection restrictions stipulating information collected for one purpose cannot be used for another.

Legislation will be required to allow data held by the Passport Agency and DVLA to be used to cross-check ID cards applications. But there is no guarantee that this information is sufficiently robust to be used for that purpose.

The government needs to be careful that data held is fit for purpose, in line with the requirements of the Data Protection Act (DPA), assistant information commissioner Jonathan Bamford told Computing.

'Some government databases are more reliable than others and while they may be perfectly fine for their own job, they are not necessarily good enough for a proper ID check,' he said.

The DPA does not require the creation of a string of parallel central registers, says Bamford.

'There would need to be data protection safeguards but there are not fundamental problems that would mean a central population register could never go ahead,' he said.

'Our worry with all the multiple developments is at what point they get joined together. That is not yet clear and there is a danger that something might start in one context - with lower data quality requirements - and jump to another that is completely inappropriate.'

Several high-profile MPs are backing Computing's call for an independent assessment of the government's database plans.

Alan Williams MP, chairman of the Public Accounts Commission responsible for funding the National Audit Office, is asking Comptroller and Auditor General Sir John Bourn to look into the issue.

Edward Leigh MP, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said: 'We will have a lot of harsh words to say if the Home Office could have avoided duplication with more forethought or could have created better joined up systems with the mass of information the public sector already has.'

Shadow home secretary David Davis MP said: 'We have concerns that many different departments are separately collecting data in individuals when they should be working together. Over time, it will save millions of pounds.'

Richard Allan MP, Liberal Democrat IT spokesman, says the government needs to go back to first principles.

'Government has to think this through or it will spend a lot of money and end up with lousy systems,' he said.

'Any systems where records have to be cross-checked between different systems always potentially fails so the idea of generating a number of different systems which all have to cross-checked with each other is a recipe for disaster.'

What the experts say

Public Accounts Committee chairman Edward Leigh MP

We will have a lot of harsh words to say if the Home Office could have avoided duplication with more forethought or could have created better joined up systems with the mass of information the public sector already has.

Public Accounts Commission chairman Alan Williams MP

I will ask the National Audit Office if it can look into this before too much money is committed so the government has objective advice available to it rather than advice from individual agencies and from someone who looks right across government.

Shadow home secretary David Davis MP

The Conservative Party backs Computing's campaign on national databases.

Liberal Democrat IT spokesman Richard Allan MP

Government has to think this through or it will spend a lot of money and end up with lousy systems.

Government IT expert Jim Norton

The situation is a complete farce. I would strongly support an enquiry into the holding and use of public data.

Intellect public sector programme manager Nick Kalisperas

We would like this written into the job specification for the person who will become the head of egovernment. They need to have the power to facilitate joined up government.