The Data Debate

Computing's Data Debate campaign calls on the government to review its multiple parallel database projects and in the process have the much-needed public debate about the role of citizen data and identity in the digital society.

We are not suggesting there should be a single monolithic database holding all citizen information from health records to driving licence number to tax details.

But if the government goes ahead with the uncoordinated creation of a whole new set of supposedly definitive registers, existing confusion and data quality problems will only be exacerbated.

And when the confusion may impact on the ID card project - the so-called 'gold standard' of identification authorising access to healthcare and benefits - the situation requires urgent attention.