In a heavy-hitting article in The Times, Thomas warned of "sleepwalking into a surveillance society" and questioned the purpose of such databases.
As he pointed out they will mean a substantial increase in the information held about us, which will be made available to more public bodies than ever before. Even in this information age there are limits to how much we want to share about ourselves and who we want to share it with.
There is little doubt that more data needs to be exchanged between professionals about children who are thought to be at risk of harm. After the death of Victoria Climbie it was clear that changes were necessary. Lord Laming's inquiry found that professionals missed 12 chances to save Victoria, failures that would not have happened had communication been better. Naturally the Government has looked to information technology to help improve communication between the professionals who are involved in protecting children.
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