Citizen data sharing system abandoned

Stuart Sumner, Computing, Monday 23 August 2010 at 17:16:00

Government scraps plans for central data sharing system after three years

The government has decided not to go ahead with long-standing plans to create
a database containing the personal records of every UK citizen.

It would have contained information taken from the
UK
National Identity Card scheme, which the government scrapped in May this
year.

Following admissions from technical designers that they were unable to find a
cost-effective way of implementing the system, plans to turn the Department for
Work and Pensions (DWP)
Customer
Information System (CIS) into the data sharing tool, known as CISx, have
been shelved.

The tool was being developed jointly by DWP and the Identity and Passport
Service (IPS), to support the National Identity Service (NIS), part of which
included the plans to require all UK citizens to own identity cards. The
government recently announced that it has decided to close the NIS programme,
with which CISx was linked.

A spokesperson from the DWP told Computing: "It was decided that it
would be easier and better value for money for the UK border agencies to work on
their own database rather than provide a centralised system. The decision not to
implement CISx was made in March, prior to the announcement that the NIS would
not go ahead."

The DWP went on to explain that contrary to many media reports, CISx was
designed to be a part of the NIS programme, rather than to provide
cross-government access to personal citizen records.

"The existing CIS system is already used cross-government," the spokesperson
added. "HMRC [HM Revenue and Customs] and local authorities already have access
to CIS," she said, explaining that no additional functionality was required, as
other departments do not have a requirement to access the information.

"CISx never got past the development stage," the spokesperson concluded.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2268594/citizen-sharing-system