MPs outraged by pupil fingerprinting

MPs have criticised new guidance from Becta that shows schools can fingerprint pupils without first asking for parental permission.

Although the guidelines from Becta, the Government’s schools ICT agency, say schools should "fully involve parents in any decision to introduce biometric or fingerprint technology", it is not mandatory to do so.

Under the Data Protection Act there is nothing that explicitly requires schools to seek the consent of parents before implementing a biometric technology system, causing outrage among some MPs.

Shadow Minister for Schools Nick Gibb said: "This is long-awaited but very disappointing guidance. It is very weak as it neither requires schools to seek parental consent nor recognises the serious issues at stake with schools fingerprinting children simply for administrative convenience. The Government needs to look more carefully at the fundamental principles these issues raise."

Biometric technologies have been used by some schools for four years to help with cashless lunch queues, school libraries and attendance systems. Benefits cited include speeding up administration processes and cutting down on bullying and the theft of lunch money from pupils.

Although the Department for Children, Schools and Family said it has no figures on how many schools use biometric systems, a survey conducted by the campaigning organisation Leave them Kids Alone shows it is growing rapidly.

LKA has estimated that 3,500 primary and secondary schools now use biometric data systems and that approximately 750,000 children have been fingerprinted by their schools with around 20 new schools a week being added to those figures.

It is mostly fingerprint technology that is used but MPs are concerned that the Government has given little thought to issues of security, consent, keeping the data for longer, or permanently as well as access by other authorities such as the police.

Greg Mulholland Lib Dem Shadow Minister for Schools went so far as to say in a House of Commons debate that "the collection of biometric data by schools is not necessary". He said using biometric systems utterly outweighed any positive benefits that may ensue.

Becta told Computeractive that if parents or children objected and refused to give their fingerprints, then schools could not force them to comply. A representative told us that if this was the case, the guidelines clearly point out that schools have to offer alternative systems, such as smartcards, to access the same services if pupils want to opt out or their parents object.