As outlined in our paper ‘Reversing the Rise of the Surveillance State’, we are sceptical of the benefits of big government databases and will review them against six tests:
1. Is it proportionate?
2. Is the information held operationally necessary?
3. Is there a time limit on the information held?
4. Can the data be better controlled by the individual citizen rather than held centrally?
5. Are there clear governance procedures on how the information can be used and shared?
6. Is the private information held secure and properly managed?
Those that do not pass will be terminated or reformed. We are already committed to scrapping ContactPoint and the ID Cards Programme.
