18 December 2007
Following admissions that 3 million more people's personal details have been
compromised - this time by the DVLA [1] - civil liberties and privacy
campaign NO2ID [2] last night called it a crime. The group demands an
immediate freeze on all mass transfer of private information between
government agencies and for the scrapping of the ID cards and
'Transformational Government' [3] programmes.
Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator, said:
"For all its spin about tackling identity fraud, the government is clearly
the largest contributor to the problem. The HMRC and DVLA breaches to which
ministers have admitted are just the most visible examples [4] of a
deliberate government policy of abusing the privacy of citizens whenever it
is convenient. These abuses must stop now.
"The British public isn't fooled by reviews and platitudes. 'Trust in me'
won't work any more. To proceed with ID cards and yet more 'data-sharing' in
such circumstances is not just arrogant and stupid – it's a crime.
"That may be literally true. If any private body had policies that
predictably made fraud and blackmail more likely, then under recent
legislation it would be 'involved in serious crime' [4]. We don't need a
review blaming some junior or some procedural fault. We need ministers to be
served with Serious Crime Prevention Orders under their own legislation."
-ENDS-
Notes for editors
1) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7147715.stm – ‘Millions of
L-driver details lost’, BBC, 17/12/07
2) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the
database state. Scroll down http://www.no2id.net for a list of 'database
state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.
3) The 'Transformational Government' agenda, most recently articulated in
the 'Service Transformation Agreement' published this October clearly states
(paragraph A.5, p 19) that the new Ministry of Justice is to "deliver a
package of measures over the next 3-5 years to overcome current barriers to
information sharing within the public sector." –
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/B/9/pbr_csr07_service.pdf
4) Serious Crime Act 2007 -
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/acts/acts2007/ukpga_20070027_en_1 (Which
paradoxically provides, among other things, for detailed financial
information held by HMRC about individuals to be arbitrarily shared with
organisations at home or abroad for "fraud prevention".)
5) Since the first announcement on the HMRC scandal, serious breaches have
been reported from:
HMRC – loses 2 more CDs on top of the 2 CDs containing the details of 25
million individuals, 22/11/07. Apology letters containing more personal
details were sent, some to the wrong address, others of which were not even
properly sealed in their envelope.
DWP – loses the financial details of 40,000 housing benefit claimants,
2/12/07.
Sefton Primary Care Trust – mislays details of 2,000 people, 11/12/07.
CAB (NI) – loses laptop with 60,000 people’s personal details on it,
12/12/07.
Department of Health – loses personal details of 3,000 individuals,
14/12/07.
DVA (NI) – loses personal details of 7,600 individuals.
These are *known and reported* problems. Given that the Information
Commissioner has been hearing the 'confessions' of departments and agencies
across government, NO2ID expects this list to grow.
For more information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact
Phil Booth (National Coordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974
230 839, Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on
07956 544 308, or Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on
07773 376 166.
The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ
enquiries@no2id.net
Tel: 07005 800 651
Press: click here
