Implementing the Data Protection Act has put the online national
electoral register a year behind
A key government project to allow online voting risks being
seriously delayed due to confusion over implementation of the 1998
Data Protection Act.
Plans to create the UK's first national electoral register, which
would underpin online voting, have been thrown into disarray by a
High Court ruling last month. It ruled that the sale of electoral
register information for commercial use breached data protection
and human rights laws.
Local authorities have now suspended sales of their electoral
register and the ruling threatens to seriously delay plans for a
national electoral register, which is a key e-government
initiative.
Although a shortlist of contracts for the projects has been drawn
up, industry sources close to the negotiations believe that it
could take up to a year before the register is in place.
The confusion over the project has also triggered a wider debate
over the Government's strategy for delivering services
electronically. The local government IT manager's group Socitm this
week warned that data protection rules also prevented the sharing
of personal public data between local government departments, such
as tax and social services.
"The Data Protection Act has been something of a sword of Damocles
hanging over a lot of e-government and the modernisation agenda,"
said Robin Carsberg, Socitm president.
The national register was due to be in place by early next year.
Councils are waiting for guidance from the Department of Transport,
Local Government and Regions to clarify the commercial implications
of the court ruling. But this advice may take up to six months, a
department spokeswoman said.
Sources close to the national register project contract believe
that it will take a further three- to six months to create the
national register, after the contracts are awarded. This means that
the national electoral register may not be in place until early
2003.
In addition, the recent High Court ruling threatens to reduce
considerably the commercial value of the national register for the
companies running it. This could deter bidders, which would charge
banks and credit reference agencies to check electoral roll records
as part of credit checking.
One source said, "Anyone who was bidding for this process and
expected a smooth ride clearly did not understand it. However, [the
current confusion] is outrageous and bad news for anyone bidding in
the process."
The shortlist to run four different aspects of the register is
understood to include IT services firm Unisys and Intelligent
Addressing, a supplier to the National Land and Property Gazetteer,
another major e-government project.
The Improvement and Development Agency said it would release a
timetable for the national register project in January, depending
on a government Gateway Review assessing major IT projects. It was
consulting users over the implementation of the project and was
awaiting government clarification over the recent court ruling, it
added.