Home News Biography In the News Photo Album European Parliament EU Grants & Funding Publications Contact Guides Survey Links   Conservative Party Conservatives.com Latest News from the Conservative Party
		Public sector database culture Friday, 27th March 2009 Letter to London local newspapers Dear Editor, Last week it was announced that the British Government – which has the largest DNA database in the world – is now monitoring the credit cards of people entering and leaving the country. This week the Joseph Rowntree Foundation published a report stating that, of the 42 databases that the government holds on us the citizens, just six were acceptable in terms of human rights or data protection law. It is now calling for urgent and radical action to change the public-sector database culture. Not only does it cost huge amount of taxpayer’s money to keep these databases but they also erode our civil liberties and increase the risk of personal data being lost, as we saw with the bank records of those of us who receive Child Benefit last year. The bureaucrats argue that their databases are there to streamline government services. Yet it is the bureaucrats and the databases that people want to see streamlined – not government services. Yours Sincerely Syed Kamall MEP