By Ron Coates, 25 October 2000 14:30
NEWS Margaret Moran MP, chairwoman at yesterday's launch of Eurim's white paper, A Shock to the System - Joined Up Electronic Government, said: "We'd like to see a much stronger role for the data protection commissioner in building citizen confidence in government. You have to look to provide services where people feel comfortable." A top recommendation made would give Data Protection Commissioner Elisabeth France the job of policing data sharing between government departments and to ramp up the penalties for data abuse. Currently, she can only investigate after a complaint has been made and has very limited powers of punishment. Eurim also states in its white paper that the public must be confident a more efficient government will also serve their needs as well as the needs of government officials. To be effective, the improvement in delivery of government services will have to use smartcards the public can use with different departments and also to have single points of contact - a single office where people can deal with several departments. Moran said: "I think the more government partners with non-profit organisations and other agencies that citizens already do business with, the greater confidence citizens will have. For example, people may feel more comfortable giving information to Age Concern rather than a government department. silicon.com is currently campaigning to persuade the UK government to provide the resources it needs to make sure consumers details are safe on the internet. If you would like to add your name to the growing list of our supporters, mail us at backtheact@silicon.com.
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