Smile; Big Tony wants to watch over you! From the BBC, comes the announcement of a proposal for creating a British überdatabase:
A giant database of people’s personal details could be created at Whitehall under government plans which ministers say will help improve public services.[...]
The review team, headed by Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton, has concluded that it is difficult for services to be as flexible and light-footed as people want because of rules on data.
The department cites an example of a family who had a total of 44 contacts with government over 180 days trying to make the necessary arrangements after a family member died in a road accident.
Too often, says the review team, it may be legally forbidden to use information other than for a single purpose.
At other times services may assume there is a legal barrier when there is none.