Government Hides ContactPoint Report

UK.gov rejects calls to open up on ContactPoint security • The Register

The UK government has turned down an opposition request to explain why it has refused to publish a full security report into ContactPoint, the controversial child protection database.

Deloitte carried out of a security audit of the scheme but the government only published an executive summary, rather than the whole report, back in February. Repeated requests by the opposition Conservatives to publish the full report were turned down, so the Tories put in a Freedom of Information request, seeking to uncover the rationale behind the decision to keep the details of the report secret.

This request has also been turned down on the grounds that advice to ministers ought to remain confidential or else advisers would hold back from giving their honest opinion in future. The Tories rejected this justification.

What a surpise.

ContactPoint Falls at First Contact

Ideal Government picks up on the halting of the government's A-Database-Will-Save-All-Our-Children project, ContactPoint.

The Times reported on it earlier (some useful info on govt snooping legislation there as well):

The DCSF has confirmed that about a third of England’s 150 local authorities have failed to sign off.

This should be dismembered and buried along with Gordon Brown and New Labour.

ContactPoint G20 Street Action Cock Up Hopes

ContactPoint, the government's child-snooping database, is in chaos already. HT Dare To Know.

London Lockdown: ahead of protests at the G20 'summit' the press are hoping for some street action. Wouldn't it be really great if the protestors comlpetely wrong-footed the whole lot of them by NOT TURNING UP AT ALL?

Question that occurred to me during a beery moment the other day: if we are paying local councils to take away our rubbish, ie to provide us with a service, what right do they have to fine us for not filling our bins properly? Surely this is the wrong way round?

Besides which, if Labour have their way, garbage collection will become fully privatised and we'll have to pay individually to have it carted off - they removed the statutory obligation for local councils to take our rubbish last year. And no doubt there's something tucked away in an EU directive about all this, which doesn't bode well, because the Conservatives will no doubt have to do the same.

And another thing: I keep reading various Euroweenies criticising people who don't like the EU by saying they deliberately misconstrue what the EU is doing. By saying that directives, for instance, aren't 'laws' but goals towards which national governments should work. Bullshit. Directives have to be implemented, full stop. The only freedom a national government has is in tailoring it to fit into their existing processes. The end result is the same.

Of course, if we weren't a member of this bloated, inefficient, corrupt, wasteful, undemocratic Eurostate we wouldn't have to spend time and money on implementing their stupid directives. That would save parliament at least half its legislative time.

The Hungarian Prime Minister has resigned. It never occurs to The Spawn of the Manse and his cohorts that they have no moral right to stay in power. You would have thought that anyone in that position would be only too happy to say, "we've fucked it all up, we don't know what to do, over to you, Dave. You can carry the can, now, we're off for a rest." Absolutely no integrity.

Keep Up, You Out There!

ContactPoint: glad to see someone else in the blogosphere is keeping up. See my previous posts.

Labour Child Nazi Snoopers Database

The Labour government won't be satisfied till it has everybody under permanent and complete surveillance, from cradle to grave. In addition to ID cards and the National Identity Register it also plans to keep tabs on all children up to the age of 19.

The popular press have at last cottoned on to what Labour has been up to with regard to our privacy and liberties. The Mail Online carries a useful article on ContactPoint and the Common Assessment Framework, which underpins it.

You can see what kind of information is to be collected by checking out the website of Northamptonshire County Council.

The following gives you an idea:

How the child or young person feels about themselves
Is he/she developing a sense of self as a separate and
valued person? Is he/she confident and self-assured?
Does he/she feel a sense of belonging; express
feelings about ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation?

Aspirations
Does the child or person know what he/she wants to do
in the future? How motivated are they? Are there
obstacles? Is he/she making plans to achieve this (as
expected for their age?)

Guidance, boundaries and stimulation
Is the child or young person helped to control his or her
own emotions and behaviour? Does he/she have
suitable guidance and discipline? Is he/she helped to
learn and participate in positive activities?

Housing, employment and financial considerations
If not already mentioned, what are the family living
arrangements? Does the accommodation have
everything needed for safe and healthy living? Who in
the family is employed? Have there been disruptions to
employment? Is there enough money to support the
family? Do work arrangements leave the family time to
be together?

Children and young people shouldn't be asked questions like these. Neither should they be brought up to accept this intrusive questioning as normal.

All this information will be made available to thousands of 'professionals' and cross-referenced with other government databases, so you can see why the government are so keen to gather details of household income, etc.

And, as is par for the course with this government and their cowboy contractors, data will continue to be lost or stolen on a regular basis.

At the moment inclusion on the database is voluntary, so parents can refuse to have their childrens' details collected, but if Labour get in at the next election it will soon become compulsory. Another creepy bit of Labour nastiness, however, is that once a child is 12 they can decide to have information recorded without parents' permission - or even knowledge. Talk about setting up a snooper state.

The Conservatives have repeatedly said they would scrap ContactPoint and the ID card scheme. We can only hope they can be trusted and hold them to account should they win the next election.

ContactPoint is to go live in January 2009. Resist it.

Labour Already Has The Answer To Child Abuse

In all the coverage of the dreadful 'Child P' case and the arguing in parliament, I have not yet heard a single mention of Labour's system to 'stop this ever happening again'. Otherwise known as Contactpoint, which is due to be in place by the end of 2008.

It strikes me as odd that Labour have not trumpeted this is as their big new answer, having spent years dreaming it up and spending vast amounts of money on it.

Conjured up after the Victoria Climbie case, it bears all the marks of New Labour: it's a technological response to human and system failure; it's also intrusive, authoritarian, unethical and open to misuse. And it will prove inefficient and expensive.

If anyone has heard mention of this in the media I would be grateful for information. They seem to be ignorant of its existence or unwilling to mention it - or confront the government with it.

What Will The Tories Scrap?

The Tories have said that if they win the next election they will scrap Contactpoint, the government's child-surveillance database which was due to be up and running this year (Telegraph). This database would contain details on every child under 18.

Apart from being another intrusive, expensive and unnecessary project, it also poses security problems - data security not being one of the government's strong points. And, given that its purpose is to help prevent cases such as that of Victoria Climbie, isn't it a bit odd that they decided not to include contact details of children with violent parents?

The Tories say they'll also scrap polyclinics (or super-surgeries, or whatever term the government comes up with this week). The government have consistently lied about polyclinics, at one point saying they would only be introduced in London first as a trial, then immediately forcing every Health Trust in the country to set one up. And other lies, as well.

The question is: will the Tories actually do this if they get into power? Or will they make the promise then quietly forget about it, as often happens?