Government database sharing – why does that sound familiar?

by | Nov 16, 2010 | civil liberties, Just plain weird, Please fuck off., Politics, Righteous Wankers, Strange Thoughts, UK Misery, Well I never. | 1 comment

Being a somewhat suspicious type, cogs started whirring earlier today when I saw the news that the lesser, yellow part part of the humunculus leader our current coalition masters was proposing database sharing by local councils to verify local voter registration records as part of the political reform proposals being considered.

The BBC has the following (emphasis mine) :

Councils are to get powers to cross-match their databases as part of a pilot scheme intended to increase the number of people registered to vote.

Nick Clegg will say later “there is no excuse for inaction” with estimates of 3.5m not on the electoral roll.

Data-matching will allow councils to identify the people who are missing so council officers “will be able to help these people onto the register“.

Consider for a moment what type of databases a council would have to use to ensure that the locally resident population is thoroughly covered as they would have to include all people of voting age. The likes of council tax databases, driver and vehicle information and bank records do not seem to be areas of complete information in my mind as they would miss quite a large proportion of the target group Mr Clogg (yes indeed) would like to include :

The government also plans to reach out to the estimated 3.5 million people who are not registered to vote – “It is not good enough to simply ignore the millions who aren’t registered, especially when you look more closely at where the problem is worst: among the young; among black and ethnic minority communities; in areas with high social deprivation.

The only sensible sources that spring to my mind would be GP records, National Insurance/PAYE records and benefits claimant type information as most people of 18 or over should appear on at least one if not all of those.

All of which then sounds suspiciously similar to the proposals initially included in the Coroners and Justice bill which were finally dropped by our old friend slippery weasel Jack Straw after a huge campaign of protest :

Government abandons data-sharing scheme

The Government has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over plans to share vast amounts of private data about individuals.

Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, is to shelve proposals which critics said would have led to patients’ confidential medical records being passed to third parties.

A spokesman for Mr Straw said the “strength of feeling” against the plans had persuaded him to rethink.

The proposals will be dropped entirely from the Coroners and Justice Bill, and a new attempt will be made to reach a consensus on introducing a scaled-back version at an unspecified stage in the future.

Now I can already hear the “nothing to hide, nothing to fear” brigade being wheeled out of semi-retirement in response to thoughts like this as it’s all in the interests of promoting democracy which people died fighting for didn’t you know!

My response to that is that you only have to look at RIPA which was designed to tackle terrorism and serious crime but was instead used by councils to spy on everyone and everything for the simple reason that they could.

Indeed, the sheer number of reports of councils interfering and spying with those powers ought to make anyone think before giving them any new powers at all.

The Telegraph (emphasis mine) :

More than 1,000 covert surveillance operations are being launched every month to investigate petty offences such as dog fouling, under-age smoking and breaches of planning regulations.

Councils and other public bodies are using legislation designed to combat terrorism in order to spy on people, obtain their telephone records and find out who they are emailing. The full extent to which local authorities take advantage of new powers given to them by the Government came to light after a Dorset council admitted spying for more than two weeks on a family it suspected of lying on a school application form.

BBC News:

Councils in England and Wales have used controversial spying laws 10,000 times in the past five years, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show.

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) was designed to fight serious crime.

But officials have been using it to spy on suspected dog fouling, littering and other minor offences.

The government has promised curbs on its use but the Lib Dems warn it could still become a “snoopers’ charter”.

The figures, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveal for the first time how widespread the use of Ripa is among council officials in England and Wales.

A survey of more than 180 local authorities found:

• 1,615 council staff have the power to authorise the use of Ripa.

• 21% (or 340) of these staff are below senior management grade.

• Ripa powers have been used 10,333 times in the last five years.

• Just 9% of these authorisations have led to a successful prosecution, caution or fixed-penalty notice

Herald Scotland :

Scottish councils have used controversial surveillance powers to secretly spy on hundreds of people but only managed to gather enough evidence for one arrest a year.

Figures obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation revealed that local authorities were using the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act 2000 (RIPSA) to carry out clandestine surveillance of people accused of minor crimes.

The law was designed to help fight serious crime or terrorism but figures show that over the past two years, councils have carried out surveillance operations to tackle dog-fouling, racism, smoking in the workplace, misuse of council property and the illegal sale of fireworks.

Using RIPSA powers, councils can film people with hidden cameras, intercept their emails and secretly follow them. They are allowed to use undercover agents, for instance to find out if a shop is selling alcohol to children.

In 2008, councils used RIPSA powers 296 times, resulting in one arrest, while in 2009 they used the powers 248 times, which also resulted in one arrest. The figures could be larger as some councils, including Edinburgh, did not respond to the FOI request.

And on and on and on…

As is usual with the current lot (and the shower of shit that preceded them) there is little substance on this at the moment other than today’s speech to The Hansard Society but I certainly feel that it is one to keep a very close eye on as it gets towards Parliament in bill form just to see what the sneaky buggers are up to!

1 Comment

  1. Bucko

    I was missing of the electoral role for six years when I lived in rented property. Why? I didn’t want to vote.