Advertisement
Promo

Compliance Toolkit

Conservatives plan to ditch ContactPoint database

Kable

Published: 30 Sep 2008 12:56 BST

  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendly
  • Post Comment

The shadow education secretary has said the Conservatives would replace the directory of all children in England with a small, targeted system.

A Conservative party spokesperson confirmed a report in The Daily Telegraph that Michael Gove, the shadow education secretary, plans to scrap the £224m system if his party forms a government.

Gove told the newspaper that ContactPoint would "increase the risk" of abuse of vulnerable children.

"The government has proven that it cannot be trusted to set up large databases and cannot promise that inappropriate people would be unable to access the database. It would be irresponsible to implement something that is such a danger to our children," Gove said.

"After all the problems we have had with this government losing sensitive data, we need to do things differently. We need to invest in people — strengthening relationships, not building another Big Brother system," Gove added.

He said that a Conservative government would instead promote data sharing between professionals looking after children, as well as a small, targeted database for children of concern.

The ContactPoint system, which aims to provide a directory of which professionals are responsible for every child in England, was recently delayed again and is now set to open in January.

  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendlyPrint with EPSON

Did you find this article useful?


Full Talkback thread

0 comments


Company/Topic Alerts

Create a new alert from the list below:




Video icon

Video

Cloud Watch Special Report

Five cloud computing myths exploded

Five cloud computing myths exploded

Analysis The cloud is providing a fertile habitat for the marketeers and their exaggerated claims. We examine the hokum and debunk the five most frequently peddled misconceptions about the cloud

More Special Reports

Sentry Posts Blog

Campaigners criticise '£10bn NHS IT ov...

The National Health Service's flagship IT project has been criticised by a tax campaign group for running billions of pounds over budget. The NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT)... More

2 comments

Climate research centre compromised

One of the UK's leading climate change research centres has had a security breach. The Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA) suffered a compromise of information,... More

1 comment

Government web-monitoring plans on hol...

Government plans to compel ISPs to process and store details of all web communications have been put on hold until after the next election. The Home Office told ZDNet UK on Wednesday... More

1 comment


Skip Sub Navigation Links to CNET Brand Links

Help

Become part of the ZDNet community.

Newsletters