Security checks halt ContactPoint

Database of children's details to undergo security checks following HMRC disc fiasco

Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve 27 Nov 2007

A security review has held up plans for ContactPoint, a database containing personal details of every child in the UK.

Children's minister Kevin Brennan said the decision was taken following last week's loss of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) computer discs containing the details of 25 million people.

A recent report also showed that children had serious misgivings and concerns about the security of ContactPoint, which will be password protected. However, there are expected to be around 330,000 vetted users who will have access to this, including social workers, GPs and headteachers.

Roger Morgan, the children's rights director for England warned that youngsters believed it would be too easy for unauthorised personnel and paedophiles to get access to information held on the system.

In a statement to MPs, Mr Brennan said: "Delaying the implementation of ContactPoint will enable the independent assessment of security procedures to take place, as well as address the changes to ContactPoint that potential system users have told us they need."

The delays means that local authorities are not now expected to implement the £244m database until at least September or October 2008.

The ethos behind ContactPoint is to design a system that would flag up vulnerable children to the authorities. It was a key recommendation from the public inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of Victoria Climbie.

However, the system has been severely criticised by the House of Lords Select Committee on Merits of Statutory Instruments and a report by the Foundation for Information Policy Research for the Information Commissioner, the Conservative party and the Lib Dems.

Following the HMRC scandal, the Conservatives demanded the immediate suspension of ContactPoint.

Although the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DfCSF) said there were no plans to abandon ContactPoint, a security review would be carried out by an as yet unnamed independent organisation.

Maria Miller, Conservative Shadow Minister for Family Welfare, said: “We welcome the fact that the Government is going to delay the introduction of ContactPoint to look at security after the fiasco at HMRC.

“The Government should also use this opportunity to see whether it really is necessary to have a database for every single child in the country, accessible to 330,000 people, given the significant amount of concern that this could overload the system and lead to a dumbing down of information.

“We have always supported, as an alternative, a slimmed-down tightly controlled database which focuses on those genuinely vulnerable children.”

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