The DNA profiles of nearly 1.1 milllion children are being stored on the national DNA database – and will remain there until the children’s 100th birthday, whether or not criminal proceedings follow.

The figures were obtained by the Liberal Democrats in a Parliamentary question, and show that genetic information of 1.09 million children under 18 is being held, 337,000 of whom are under 16.

The campaign group Genewatch has calculated that around half of the children whose details are held on the database are innocent.

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, said:

“We already know that guilt and innocence are of no concern to ministers, but clearly neither is the negative effect the database has on children.

“It is unacceptable to keep the DNA of children on record in perpetuity for the most minor of offences. Unless convicted of a sexual or violent offence, under-16s should not have their DNA stored on the database.”

You can read the full story in the Guardian.

Please help our campaign to protect innocent people’s DNA by encouraging friends and family to sign our petition at: http://ourcampaign.org.uk/dna

£140,000 of public money has been spent so far  trying to keep reviews of the Government’s plans for ID cards a secret.

The Office of Government Commerce has spent the money on a four-year legal battle to avoid releasing the relevant “Gateway reviews” (stage-by-stage assessments of Government projects) .

The Information Tribunal, which hears appeals against Freedom of Information rulings, ordered ministers last week to publish two reviews into the progress of the ID cards scheme within 28 days.

However, the OGC is not likely to do so readily, and costs could rise even higher, as Computer Weekly reports:

 “Its punctilious arguments for continued secrecy have the full backing of ministers. The OGC has so far:
 -Rejected a freedom of information request for the two gateway reviews to be published
- Rejected an appeal by the FOI applicant to publish the two reviews
- Appealed against a ruling of the Information Commissioner that the reviews be published
- Appealed against a ruling by the Information Tribunal that the reviews be published.

“The OGC instructed Jonathan Swift, one of the two most senior barristers who act for the government in civil law matters, to argue in the High Court for the reviews to be kept secret.

“But the OGC is likely to appeal the Tribunal’s decision, which means it can continue to keep the reviews secret.

“If the OGC were to lose any High Court appeal, it could take the case to the Law Lords. If it lost that too, ministers could veto to stop the reviews being published.

“The two gateway “zero” reviews in question are already more than five years old. They were assessments of the ID cards scheme in June 2003 and January 2004, and gave a view on the feasibility of the ID cards scheme long before the Identity Cards Bill received royal assent in March 2006.”

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman, said:

“The government is increasingly realising that its ID card scheme is a laminated poll tax with all the same toxic ability to make it unpopular.

“Ministers would win more plaudits if they did not drag their feet on their legal obligations.”  (BBC)

 

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) has rejected Government plans to use pilots as guinea pigs for its ID cards scheme, saying, “Promises that ID cards would be voluntary have been broken.”

In a submission to the Government’s consultation on ID cards, BALPA said,

“ID cards have absolutely no value as far as security is concerned… this is nothing but coercion…

“It is clear that the government’s staged introduction of biometric identity cards first to overseas students, then to migrant workers and then for aviation workers represents a way of picking off what is seen as easy or compliant targets.”

BALPA also asks,

“What happens when the first airport worker refuses to register for an ID card? Our understanding from the draft regulations is… that the individual will be out of a job. This could be an individual who has served his or her country as a Service pilot being told they are not now trusted. This is both unacceptable and demeaning and we will resist.”

BALPA sent the management of Manchester airport and London City airport a copy of their submission. These airports are the first two chosen by the Government for trials of ID cards on airside workers – however they have been warned that pilots will not co-operate.

Read more on this story in The Times.

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

The Government intends to store all Britons’ international travel details on a new database.

Every passenger in and out of the UK will have their details held on computer for up to 10 years, including their name, address, telephone number, credit card details, seat reservation and travel itinerary.

The UK Border Agency already counts people who enter or leave the country by “high risk” routes, including via Heathrow and Gatwick airports.  Under the “e-borders” programme it is planned that all 250m annual movements will be counted by 2014.

From The Times:

Some immigration officials with knowledge of the plans admit there is likely to be public concern.

“A lot of this stuff will have a legitimate use in the fight against crime and terrorism, but it’s what else it could be used for that presents a problem,” said one.  “It will be able to detect whether parents are taking their children abroad during school holidays. It could be useful to the tax authorities because it will tell them how long non-UK domiciled people are spending in the UK.”

The database is also expected to monitor people’s travel companions.

A spokesman for the NO2ID campaign group said, “When your travel plans, who you are travelling with, where you are going to and when are being recorded you have to ask yourself just how free is this country?” [Source: Press Association]

The location of the database? It’s a secret: for a government so keen to know our exact whereabouts, they are very coy about revealing theirs.

Although believed to be in Wythenshawe, Manchester, staff have been told to refer to it only as “a new operations centre in the northwest.”

A Home Office spokesperson has admitted that knife crime statistics published in December were not checked by statisticians before being released.

The fact sheet has already been criticised by the UK Statistics Authority for its “selective or otherwise in appropriate comparisons”, “inappropriate conclusions” and “unsubstantiated claims.”

The BBC’s Mark Easton has blogged about the Government’s confused account of how the statistics came to be released:

“This afternoon, cabinet office Minister Kevin Brennan told committee of MPs that “the statistics produced within the Home Office on that fact sheet were approved by statisticians in the Home Office before publication”.

“Startled by a suggestion made by the committee chair… that the stats guys had done no such thing, a flustered Mr Brennan replied: “That is the information I have, but if that is incorrect, Chair, I’ll correct the record”.

“A few hours later and my phone rings. It is a man from the Home Office. Did the statisticians know? “The answer is no”, he replied.

“”They were aware that statistics were being assembled, but saw nothing of the final product”, he told me. “They did not see that fact sheet before it was published.”

“And that wasn’t all he wanted to convey. The press office didn’t sign off the fact sheet either.”

It remains to be seen who was pushing for the release of the fact sheet.

As Sir Michael Scholar, chair of the UK Statistics Authority told the Public Administration Select Committee this week:

“I think if you are going to have trust in official statistics, you can’t have statisticians being leaned upon by politicians, by ministers or advisers or policy civil servants who are working for them.”

A private sector group of technology experts has warned of the security risks of the Government’s ID card scheme.

The report, published today by the Information Assurance Advisory Council, says that people’s private data will inevitably be lost and that measures to deal with these losses are inadequate:

“Whilst the creation of a national identity infrastructure will undoubtedly help to address some existing risks with the way people gain access to personal electronic services today, it will also undoubtedly create other, new ways in which people can be harmed.

“It is incontestable that identity subjects could be harmed, in some cases seriously, by the types of accident, failure, mistake and security breach that could take place within a national identity management system.

“It is also incontestable that no system can be 100 per cent secure, and no system can be either 100 per cent reliable or 100 per cent failsafe.

“The UK Government has to accept that its citizens will be put at risk of harm from accidents and incidents arising within the operation of any national identity management system.”

Read the full story in the Evening Standard.

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

The Home Office has not included the Welsh language on ID cards because the words are considered too long to fit on the cards.

This is despite the Home Office saying that it “has adopted the principle that in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice in Wales, it will treat the English and Welsh languages on a basis of equality.”

Wales Online reports:

Despite Welsh being used on driving licences and passports, the language was not used on the design of ID cards, which are already being issued to foreign nationals.

Junior Home Office minister Meg Hillier told MPs yesterday: “It’s not as straightforward as it may seem. We will make a final decision in advance of the high-volume roll-out in 2011-12.

“One of the other challenges is the length of the Welsh language – you have difficulty just fitting in the words on a very small ID card. But we are sensitive to these issues.”

Of course, the sensitive (and sensible) thing to do would be to scrap the intrusive ID cards scheme altogether.

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

*That’s Welsh for “Home Office”