Government Data Sharing Report is Late and Deeply Disappointing

[Richard Clayton]

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FIPR Press Release:

FOR IMMEDIATE USE : 11 April 2002

    Government Data Sharing Report is Late and Deeply Disappointing
    ---------------------------------------------------------------

The Cabinet Office Performance and Innovation Unit (PIU) has the job of
"thinking the unthinkable". Their paper "Privacy and Data-Sharing: The
Way Forward for Public Services" has finally appeared today, after a very
substantial delay.

FIPR welcomes some aspects of the paper. It has turned out that the
unthinkable inside of government has been relatively self-evident
elsewhere and thus some of what the paper says makes sense.

However, on closer inspection the paper is deeply disappointing. The PIU
authors propose to override privacy by regulation, they have put the
tasks of data sharing and maintaining privacy into the hands of single
officers, and they seem to have been misled by many of the other
departments from whom they sought evidence.

FIPR supports:

*   the importance of getting consent to data sharing from data subjects

*   the notion that protecting privacy is integral to public service;
    indeed  that protection of privacy is a public service

*   the principle that public services should be provided based on
    minimal intrusion into people's private details

FIPR calls attention to the failures:

*   The process is far too slow

    Preparing this paper has taken PIU far longer than anyone involved in
    the process was ever led to believe. Further consultation, possible
    preparation of new legislation, and implementation will take even
    longer. Moving from the current unsatisfactory arrangements to a new
    culture where data is shared responsibly while respecting people's
    privacy will be slow. This new culture, and the technical
    infrastructure on which it will need to be based, will be far too
    late to provide a basis for meeting the "e-government" deadlines of
    2005.

*   Compulsory data sharing will be introduced by secondary legislation

    The report envisages that data sharing through gateways between
    departments may sometimes have to occur without the data subjects'
    consent. Legislation is clearly needed for people's privacy to be
    overridden in this way - but the PIU merely proposes the use of
    Regulations, where Parliament will be unable to amend the proposals
    if indeed they are ever debated at all.

*   Chief Knowledge Officers will be both poacher and gamekeeper

    The CKOs in every public sector body will handle IT strategy,
    customer relationships, data management and privacy. The same person
    will be charged with keeping data as private as possible, and
    simultaneously disclosing it to other departments.

Commenting on the proposals, FIPR Chairman Ross Anderson said, "the PIU
proposals are from the 'just one more heave' school of thought. No
lessons appear to have been learnt from the rich history of
computerisation failures in Government. Auditors and Select Committees
have been reporting for a decade on why these big projects fail, but the
PIU authors seem to have been taken in by the excuses and the grandiose
plans of Whitehall."

FIPR Vice-Chairman, William Heath said, "it's not clear from the PIU
report who is to decide what is 'minimally intrusive' and how. Existing
service providers will come up with a very different answer from user
panels with access to independent advice. The principles here are fine,
but implementation is everything."


Contacts for enquiries:
- -----------------------

Ross Anderson
Chairman
Foundation for Information Policy Research 
Ross.Anderson@cl.cam.ac.uk
01223 334733
0771 325 9386


William Heath,
Vice-Chairman, FIPR
william.heath@kablenet.com
07973 115024

Notes for editors
- -----------------

1.  The Foundation for Information Policy Research (www.fipr.org), is a
    non-profit think-tank for Internet and Information Technology policy,
    governed by an independent Board of Trustees with an Advisory Council
    of experts.

2.  The PIU report "Privacy and data-sharing: The way forward for public
    services" can be found at:

http://www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/innovation/2002/privacy/report/index.htm


ends


- -- 
richard                                              Richard Clayton

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