Criminal data collection

The Register:

If we had suggested, ten years ago, that one day soon, the government would draw up a list of prescribed occupations: that they would build a database of millions of people who would need to register for those occupations; and that a committee of Public Safety would be set up with power of absolute veto over every individual on the database; it is just possible that you would have decided that even El Reg had taken leave of its oh-so-cynical senses.

But lo! All of the above is soon to come to pass – and there is a good chance that it will affect a far larger proportion of the population than you might imagine, far more people than the 11.3 million the Government claim it will affect. (14.3 million and rising is our prediction). …

Worth reading the whole thing, because it amply demonstrates the law of unintended consequences.

Also,

Sleight of hand by the Home Office doesn’t quite cover up the fact that last year the number of people wrongly branded as criminals was actually more than the number of people identified as having committed a sex crime.

That is the picture that emerges if you take the time to wade through the morass of ever-so-slightly skewed figures put out by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). …

Sensitive data being unnecessarily disclosed in upsetting circumstances

The Guardian:

Children with Aids-related HIV are being turned away and excluded from primary and secondary schools throughout the UK in contravention of anti-discrimination laws.

An investigation by the National Aids Trust has uncovered six cases of discrimination against children as young as four after their HIV status was disclosed or discovered. Head teachers have told parents of affected children that other teachers, parents and even dinner ladies would need to be told of their confidential medical status.

In one ‘shocking’ example, according to the charity, a child who did not know about her condition was made aware of it by a teacher. She was later bullied and left the school.

The National Aids Trust began investigating after social workers in Hertfordshire and Lancashire reported cases where parents looking for new schools were told their children were not welcome after they revealed the diagnosis. Under the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 it is illegal to discriminate against anyone with HIV. The charity has repeatedly asked for specific guidance on HIV for teachers from the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF). …

ID Card youth forum backfires

The Register:

Fresh from its success in selling ID cards to the aviation industry, the Home Office has moved straight on to young people with a ‘have your say’ online forum, mylifemyid.org. The site is fronted by a video of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith getting down with the yoof of Shooters Hill College.

Or at least it was – the site went down for “maintenance” before we got as far as the end of that paragraph. But from memory, we can tell you that the initial response from users has been positive, with comments ranging from (we paraphrase slightly) ‘how can we stop this nightmare scheme’, through ‘you’re going to spin the results of the survey anyway’, to ‘patronising guff.’ …

And,

The Home Office ID card yoof discussion forum has banned users “David Blunkett” and “Jacqui Smith” along with other “inappropriate” comedy logins, while laying a trail of positive comments from shadowy, spookily robotic “students”. Elsewhere in the forum the barracking has intensified since the site’s wobbly launch earlier this week, but in the Shooters Hill discussion section, a grey army of Shooters (Shooter1 onwards) chants its relentless pro-ID card mantra. …

Seems a bit presumptuous

The Guardian:

An innocent commuter mistakenly detained at gunpoint has filed an official complaint over his arrest after it emerged that he did not match the description of the armed suspect police had been seeking.

…

Nzube Udezue, 21, an Oxford University graduate, was ordered to the ground, handcuffed and arrested by a team of armed officers after disembarking a train at Bournemouth station on Saturday.

It had been thought that Udezue, who boarded his train in Southampton, directly matched the description of another man seen earlier in the day brandishing an imitation firearm 30 miles away in Basingstoke.

Dorset police have repeatedly insisted that Udezue had no complaints – and nothing more to say – about his wrongful arrest.

But in his first interview since the ordeal, Udezue said police had since admitted the Basingstoke suspect had been described as black, with short hair and wearing a brown T-shirt with orange writing. Udezue, who had a shaven head, was wearing a black T-shirt with orange writing and long white sleeves. …

Davis wins, rubbish BBC coverage

Anthony Barnett at OurKingdom:

I have blogged about the sneering, rictus-smiled coverage of Davis by the BBC. There will be more analysis of this to come, calm, and surgical. But its coverage of the count was an utter disgrace and will for the moment serve this angry viewer as a symbol of its appalling conceit and incompetance. It lost the sound when the Sherrif read out the results. Anyone could have run forward with a microphone to make sure they could broadcast Davis’s acceptance speech. They didn’t. Nor was their hapless reporter ordered forward with his own mike. Listen to Davis at his moment of triumph? Hear what he had to say about the issue? No need for THAT.

I gave up watching TV some time ago.  But I do read the BBC website and got a similar impression – the by-election wasn’t important to them / they didn’t understand it.