Liberals speak out against Government plans to drop Data Protection for their own records

Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party
41 Sutton Street
Tuebrook
Liverpool
L13 7EG

0151 259 5935

Mobile 07920090322

Dear Editor

Information given for one purpose cannot normally be used for another. Personal privacy, protection from identity fraud, confidentiality, and trust itself, rest on this  principle that underpins our current legislation on Data protection

Now the government wants to tear it up.

In a new "Information sharing vision statement" September 2006, the government outlines how it wants to reverse the presumption of confidentiality and to revoke some basic Data Protection Principles when officials deal in future with people and businesses.

Against established good practice and its own past legislation, the Government has decided it need not have to follow the rules for everyone else. In fact it intends to share information between all its own agencies and even service providers

Departments will be empowered to swap information whenever useful for them - without the knowledge or consent of the persons involved.

This is the key to the ID card puzzle. Once we are all  numbered and fingerprinted, all official and almost all private information about everyone of us can be collated.

From now on, assume that anything you tell to an official will not only go on your file, but may be sent on to anyone at all in 'the public interest'. And 'public interest' has just been redefined by the Identity Cards Act 2006 to mean 'official convenience'.

Please protest to your MP as the big brother state is upon us

Cllr Steve Radford
President of The Liberal Party