Coalition statement promotes civil liberties

And promises that ID cards, the National Identity Register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database will be scrapped

Government releases document on proposals

The coalition government has created a document stating that they will end a series of major IT projects pushed by the last administration.

It states that the Liberals and Conservatives will "Agree to implement a full programme of measures to reverse the substantial erosion of civil liberties under the Labour government as well as roll back state intrusion".

The measures will include scrapping ID cards, the National Identity Register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point Database.

It makes no reference to how existing contracts will be handled, but companies objecting to their treatment will be reminded that on ID cards, and many of the other schemes now facing the axe, the rooted objection of both parties was formally on record and well known before agreements were signed.

Further civil liberties measures will include the outlawing of finger-printing of children at school without parental permission, and the application of protections in line with a Scottish model to the Police DNA database.

The Scottish model broadly bans the retention of data on children and those arrested but not proceeded against or found not guilty, except in the case of those suspected of serious violent or sexual crimes.

There will also be a ban on the storage of internet and e-mail records without good reason. This is understood to question moves to compel internet service providers to store traffic data beyond that needed for their own commercial reasons.

The document handed out on the lawn in the garden of No 10 Downing Street, gave no timetable and stated that it will be followed by a final coalition agreement covering the full range of policy.

Omissions include any reference to the NHS computer system, regarded by both parties as a huge waste of public money; in particular the Summary Care Records system - which has seen the upload of family doctors' patient medical records onto the system and has been regarded with deep unease.

The expectation is that further intended work will be halted by the savage round of spending cuts expected in new chancellor George Osborne's emergency budget which is expected within 50 days of polling day.

One area where there may be room for new IT contracts is around the electoral system. There will be moves to reduce electoral fraud by speeding up the implementation of individual voter registration.

At present only the householder is required to register the names of people he or she knows are living at the property and are entitled to vote, with no means of identifying the people concerned.

Individual registration, which Labour fears will deter some of their natural supporters, will pave the way for new developments in polling that could lead to experiments with using mobile telephones and the internet.

Lib Dem politicians were appalled by the hundreds of voters being turned away from polling booths last week, because the paper, pencil and poling booth system designed for the 19th century could not cope.

Some of the forms of proportional voting canvassed by the Lib Dems, which could be the subject of a referendum, would require computerised processes to be completed within a reasonable period of time.