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Fabricant leads call for security checks
Oct 27 2004
By Staff Reporter, Birmingham Post
The Conservative Party has called for security checks to be carried out on all employees accessing Government databases after a DVLA worker was jailed for passing motorists' addresses to animal rights activists.
Shadow Minister for Industry and Technology Michael Fabricant said the conviction of Barry Dickinson on Monday revealed a "scandalous lack of security" and pressed for urgent action.
Mr Fabricant said he had tabled questions to 15 Ministers whose departments kept personal databases to ask what checks employees underwent and what safeguards were in place to prevent abuse.
He said: "This conviction reveals a scandalous lack of security surrounding personal computer records kept by Government departments.
"More and more personal records are being kept on Government databases, including those operated by the DVLA, the police national computer, and the benefits agency."
He added: "There needs to be full security checks on everybody with access to these databases and I also believe there should be checks to determine why people are accessing the databases."
Stafford Crown Court heard that information provided by Dickinson, of Manor Forstal, New Ash Green in Kent, allowed protesters to target individuals connected to a guinea pig breeding farm.
The court was told that the details enabled extremists to "identify, intimidate and terror-ise" people connected to the Hall family and their business at Darley Oaks Farm in New-church, near Burton-on-Trent.
Dickinson (34) was jailed for misconduct in a public office between June 2002 and December 2003.
Mr Fabricant concluded: "A future Conservative government would immediately introduce safeguards to ensure that records concerning the private lives of citizens cannot be misused."
