Privacy watchdog sees risk of rumour in child abuse database
A row has broken out in Whitehall over a new database that aims to prevent suspected paedophiles or criminals from getting jobs working with children.
The government's privacy watchdog, Richard Thomas, said that a computer system to be launched by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) covering 11 million people, including teachers and childminders, would hold not only criminal convictions but "soft intelligence" and could include rumour and speculation.
The new system is being brought in after the Soham murders, when police and social workers failed to flag up concerns about Ian Huntley, the school caretaker who killed Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
Thomas, the information commissioner, said: "The database would contain allegations, some rumour, some speculation. If [officials] start making wrong decisions or allow the data to get into the wrong hands the scope of damage done both to individuals and the system as a whole is quite considerable."
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