Legal Challenge to the Children Act

Action on Rights for Children (ARCH) are considering a legal challenge to the information sharing provisions of the Children Act, passed in November last year.

The Information Commissioner and parliament's human rights committee have both cited concerns about the then bill, prior to its approval by parliament, on a slim margin of about a dozen votes.

The Children Act 2004, Section 12 requires that the Secretary of State "establish and operate, or make arrangements for the operation and establishment of, one or more databases" and "require children's services authorities in England to establish and operate databases containing information" on all the children in the country. The databases will include the following details on each child:

" (a) his name, address, gender and date of birth;

(b) a number identifying him;

(c) the name and contact details of any person with parental responsibility for him (within the meaning of section 3 of the Children Act 1989 (c. 41)) or who has care of him at any time;

(d) details of any education being received by him (including the name and contact details of any educational institution attended by him);

(e) the name and contact details of any person providing primary medical services in relation to him under Part 1 of the National Health Service Act 1977 (c. 49);

(f) the name and contact details of any person providing to him services of such description as the Secretary of State may by regulations specify;

(g) information as to the existence of any cause for concern in relation to him;

(h) information of such other description, not including medical records or other personal records, as the Secretary of State may by regulations specify."

In addition, "Any person or body establishing or operating a database under this section must in the establishment or operation of the database have regard to any guidance, and comply with any direction, given to that person or body by the Secretary of State" and that direction may relate to "the transfer and comparison of information between databases."

The usual questions come right back:

What problem are they trying to solve?
What is the technical architecture of the system they are building to solve the problem?
How well does it solve the problem?
How can it fail and what other problems does it cause?
How much does it cost both monetarily and in respective of other personal, societal, economic and environmental trade offs?
Is it worth it?

What was that quote I vaguely remember but don't have the time to look up - "If you want to create a big brother/surveillance state/society, then start with the children and let them grow up knowing nothing else" or words to that effect. No doubt someone will email me with the correct quote.