The Wardman Wire

Do you remember Information Sharing Orders, to allow Ministers to override the Data Protection Act by fiat, smuggled into the “Coroners and Criminal Justice Bill” at the end of last year:

Plans to allow people’s details to be shared across government departments and agencies have been criticised as “draconian” in the Commons.

…

But he was accused of using the controversial inquest proposals, dropped last year from counter-terrorism legislation, as a “red rag” to attract attention while data-sharing proposals were “smuggled” in.

The Information Sharing Orders would remove data protection restrictions that mean information can only be used for the purpose it was taken.

Which were subsequently dropped after the idea was placed under the spotlight:

The government has revealed that it will ‘rethink’ a proposed law that would allow departments to demand information on citizens from businesses or other agencies, and use it in ways for which it was not originally intended.

The clause in the Coroners and Justice Bill, currently under evaluation by Parliament, would allow government departments to impose ‘information-sharing orders’ on public and private sector organisations, at the request of a minister.

The only requirement would be that the information-sharing order was in the interest of any stated policy directive.

Many groups, from NO2ID to the BCS, have criticised the clause, arguing that it would effectively grant the government unfettered access to citizens’ private information.

Well, Plan B to circumvent the Data Protection Act may have surfaced: rather than sharing data we will all have an “Integrated Citizen Record”. Via Ian Cuddy:

The project, being led by the Department for Communities and Local Government, is called EPDM, short for ‘Effective Partnership Data Management’.

Though sounding fairly innocuous, EPDM has been described by those involved in the project as the ‘silver bullet‘ for the public sector’s data sharing problems.

The remark came from consultants Xantura, who were commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government last year to develop what they called

‘a strategy and programme of work to challenge assumptions and constraints to the sharing of data between public sector agencies’.

The plan, it now transpires, is to give every individual an ”Integrated Citizen Record’ which will track their every interaction with government and trigger automatic alerts to other databases on any change.

At the centre of this is the ‘data-sharing platform’ which will enable police, councils, NHS bodies and other government agencies to exchange personal information they hold on citizens.

FFS. The price of Data Protection is constant vigilance.

Campaigning trousers – on.

Sigh.