Computing calls for an independent enquiry into government's multiple, overlapping database projects to avoid confusion wasted money and future data protection problems
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.