Secret report on ContactPoint database found ‘significant risks’ to security
Martin Beckford and Heidi Blake write in The Daily Telegraph:
A secret report on Labour’s controversial child protection database found “significant risks” to security.
The official study, which ministers refused to publish for more than two years, disclosed that “residual” dangers remained in ContactPoint despite efforts to make the system safe.
It pointed out that security standards differed at councils using the online register of all 11million children in England, while the personal information it contained could be leaked if old computers were sold on eBay.
The independent report was carried out by Deloitte, the management consultants, in early 2008 but only a summary was ever made public and attempts to obtain the full version using Freedom of Information requests were rebuffed.
Now the Information Commissioner, the data watchdog, has ordered its publication following a long-running battle by children’s rights campaigners although several parts of it remain censored.
