Education and Skills Bill

We have one small amendment in this large group, Amendment No. 92, which would make sure that inclusion of data on the database had the written consent of the person concerned. All these amendments are on the same subject. As the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, made clear, we are discussing the integrity and use of the databases and the degree to which those who use them adhere to the highest standards of data protection. She reminded the Minister of the lapses that have taken place in the past few months. We should be aware that as the potential of information technology increases so we are seeing an increasing number of extremely large databases where a great deal of information, some of it highly confidential and personal, is stored. In the case of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and child benefits, the information included the names and addresses of children and the bank account numbers of their parents. Under the Children Act, we are compiling a great national database of children. We know that many active paedophile rings are using the internet constantly. Therefore, one does not want any chance to be given for obtaining data containing lists of names and addresses of children. One does not wish such data to be leaked out and made available to the general public. It is extremely important that all those concerned with handling the data adhere to the strict requirements of the Data Protection Act, in terms of making sure that the data on databases are accurate, that the person concerned knows that they are there and has the chance to make sure that they are accurate and that those handling the data recognise their confidentiality and adhere to proper standards of encryption when passing them over. Our concern arises from the multiplication of databases. We spoke under earlier amendments about databases currently held by Connexions that would be passed over to local authorities. We may have a duplicate of the national database of children. We know that data will have regularly to be passed on from one person to another. It is therefore extremely important that those concerned with handling the data adhere to the highest standards. One aspect of those standards is the written consent: making sure that those whose data are on a database know that they are there and have given permission for their use.