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Schools
fingerprint pupils without guidance
London Telegraph |
June 4, 2007
At least 285 schools are
fingerprinting pupils without any Government guidance, an
investigation by the Liberal Democrats discloses today.
The party's report claims that only a
quarter of local education authorities (LEAs) in England have
details about the use of fingerprinting and the Government has no
idea how many children have their information stored.
The information is used for a
variety of purposes, including taking class registers, by school
libraries and for administration.
Sarah Teather, the party's
education spokesman, warned of the dangers of identity theft and
urged concerned parents to write to the Government demanding strict
legislation.
The results were compiled from a
survey of every LEA in England, with additional information from
parliamentary questions.
Hull West and Hessle, which is the
constituency of Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, was among the
areas where pupils are fingerprinted, the Liberal Democrats said.
Miss Teather said: "These figures
confirm an extremely worrying situation where schools are
fingerprinting pupils without any guidance on whether it is legal to
do so. This is happening right under Alan Johnson's nose and he
still refuses to act.
"Insecure school computers holding
precious unique personal information are a gift to identity thieves.
"Concerned parents should write to
the Government demanding that it produces strict regulations for the
use of this technology in schools.
"An awful lot of people are
washing their hands of responsibility while this practice spreads
unregulated."
In a Commons answer in December,
Jim Knight, the schools minister, said officials were working with
the education technology agency Becta and the Information
Commissioner to update guidance on the use of fingerprints, but none
has been issued.
Greg Mulholland, the Liberal
Democrat schools spokesman, has tabled a Commons motion, signed by
84 MPs, urging the Government to conduct a "full and open"
consultation on the issue.
A Department for Education
spokesman said: "It is for individual schools to decide if they wish
to take and hold biometric data.
"However, schools are very
experienced in dealing with data and all schools must abide by the
Data Protection Act.
"They are also obliged to inform
pupils, or parents where the child is too young to understand, what
information they have on record and what they use it for.
"We will shortly be issuing
guidance to all schools on best practice when taking, storing and
disposing of data, including biometric data."
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