NEW MULTI-MILLION POUND DATABASE PUTS CHILDREN AT FURTHER RISK - BROOKE

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 26th Nov 2007

The Liberal Democrats have called for a review of the security of a new database containing the details of every child in the country.

Information about every child's name, address, their parents or guardians, as well as contact details for each government service they use, will be on the ContactPoint database, available online, by next year.

The security of the database has come under fresh scrutiny following the loss of details of child benefit recipients by HMRC.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Children, Families and Young People Spokesperson, Annette Brooke MP said:

"The Government has proven itself not to be trusted with large databases containing personal details.

"The failure of security procedures by HMRC has left millions of parents extremely worried and raises questions about the safety of other records stored by the Government.

"Ministers must urgently review the security of the ContactPoint database as its highly sensitive information could be extremely dangerous in the wrong hands.

"The Government has said that extra unspecified safeguards will be put in place for children of celebrities but why shouldn't everyone enjoy this privilege?

"There could be more than financial costs if the addresses of vulnerable children from a family separated because of domestic violence, for example, are not kept secure."