Minister guarantees NHS computer security

The Times has a reassuring story, NHS database security assured.

"PATIENTS who have their personal medical details stored on the NHS’s new £6 billion computer system are guaranteed data security when the project goes live next year, the Government pledged yesterday."

That makes me feel a whole lot better. A government which has demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of both information technology and information systems now believes it can gaurantee data security in a flawed computer system. That will be quite something, if they can manage it, especially since clause 60 of the Health and Social Care Act of 2001 gives ministers the power to collect medical records from any source and do basically anything they like with the information. So Lord Warner, Minister of State for NHS Delivery, who trotted out the guarantees, is not only magically securing the holes in the system but presumably vouching for the integrity of all future Secretaries of State?