stop fingerprinting children in schools

Stop Fingerprinting children in schools? at Prime Minister's Questions but

no Prime Ministers Answers, unsurprisingly...

Prime Minister's Questions - Wednesday 6th Feb 2007

The 100% complete dodging round the issue of fingerprint systems in

school by the PM yesterday is self explanitory below.

Mr. Nick Clegg (Sheffield, Hallam) (LD): This week's bugging

controversy should not come as a surprise to the Prime Minister. After

all, it is this Government who have turned the British public into the

most spied upon on the planet: 1,000 surveillance requests every day;

1 million innocent people on the Government's DNA database; and 5,000

schools now fingerprinting our children at school. Is that what the

Prime Minister meant when he spoke so stirringly a few months ago

about the great British tradition of liberty?

The Prime Minister: I take it that the right hon. Gentleman and the

Liberal authorities support CCTV. I take it that they support the

intercept action that is taken when it is necessary for national

security. I take it that he accepts that only 1,500 intercepts have

been commissioned by Ministers as a result of urgent security needs.

Does he accept these things or not?

Mr. Clegg: The Prime Minister seems to see no limits. He is creating a

surveillance state. Why has he consistently refused requests for more

power to be given to the Information Commissioner? Why does he not do

what is already done in Scotland and remove the DNA of innocent people

from the database? Why will he not act immediately to stop the

scandalous fingerprinting of our children at school?

The Prime Minister: People in this country are reassured by the

presence of CCTV; I hope that the right hon. Gentleman is not

proposing to remove it. That is one very important part of the

investigatory and surveillance powers that we give the police to carry

out their work. I would hope that the right hon. Gentleman would look

at the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and see the

protections that have been put in place where there is surveillance

and where there are intercepts. They include authorisation by a senior

officer, the right to appeal to an independent tribunal, and a

commissioner for surveillance who looks at matters and reports