This is only affecting England and Wales, and although I live in Scotland I was born in England, I am not happy that my birth details will be on a data base in India. I have emailed Tony Blair, don't expect a reply. My MSP, who has replied to me, but has passed it on to my MP.
All the birth/marriage/death certificates from 1837 are being digitally copied and sent to India -
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/egove...512480,00.html
__________________
This is the official handout regarding the records.
Monday 27 June 2005 12:30
National Statistics (National)
DIGITISATION OF REGISTRATION RECORDS - STATEMENT FROM LEN COOK
Len Cook, Registrar General for England and Wales, issued the following statement today about the digitisation of registration records of births, marriages and deaths:
"The aim throughout our plans to reform civil registration has been to deliver a better, more efficient service to the public. Digitisation of records of births, marriages and deaths is an important part of that reform and is in line with Government principles on offering choice and joined up services to the public.
"Over the past 12 months we have carried out a competitive tender for this work under normal European Union procurement rules. The contract now under discussion with Siemens Business Systems would allow digital images taken from the General Register Office's birth, marriage and death records to be encrypted and sent electronically to India for the production of an electronic index to all the records.
The only bid we received to do the work wholly in the UK was several times the cost of the proposed contract.
"Once the index records have been quality checked and accepted by the General Register Office in Southport, Merseyside, all images and data records will be deleted from any off-shore computers. The contract includes strict controls to ensure the security and confidentiality of the registration information and all work will be subjected to rigorous data quality checks.
"Once the exercise is complete, all digital images will be held by the General Register Office and all certificates will continue to be issued from Southport
"The plans to digitise the birth, marriage and death records involve three processes:
* The first process is to create digital images of the record from the existing microfilm or paper records. All image digitisation, whether microfilm or paper based will be done in the UK. No original registration records or paper copies will leave the UK.
* The second process is to data-capture key elements of the information on the image to create searchable fields for each record. This second process will take place in India.
* The third process involves the review of any individual records which are difficult to decipher and have failed the data capture process. At this stage all the records will be subjected to overall quality assurance, validation and acceptance testing. All of these processes will be carried out in a Centre of Excellence established at the General Register Office.
"There has been much mis-informed comment about these plans.
"It is not true that the original registration records are to be transferred to India. Only digital images will be sent abroad so that key information for the indexes can be data-captured.
"UK residents are not at risk of having their identities stolen. The contract with Siemens has very strict security and audit controls built into the process. This includes physical security of computer equipment and security checks and vetting of all staff. Employees are required to leave bags and belongings in lockers and cannot take them into the working area. They are also not allowed to take mobile phones, laptops or other electronic devices into the working area to prevent information being copied or removed illegally.
"The 1,000 jobs in India are not being transferred from the UK. The proposed work will not create any permanent jobs as it is a one-off exercise which involves a small amount of data capture work from each image on a large scale over a period of 30 months."
BACKGROUND NOTES
1. The contract with Siemens Business Systems has very strict security and audit controls built into the process.
2. Physical security controls include:
* Scanning: There is no ability for scanner operators to print or store information on removable storage devices. The only frames that can be viewed are for the Quality Assurance process. Therefore no form of skimming device can be employed to capture screen images.
* Transmission of images offshore: This process uses proven encryption techniques and is currently utilised by both retail banking operations and other government departments. There are rigorous security and audit procedures in order to comply with tight security regulations.
* Offshore Filestore: The products and software used to store the digitised images are commercially proven and users/processors will not have access to the image and data storage
* Personal Computers: The PCs will have no removable data store and the PCs will be configured such that the data entry operators will have no access to native Windows software or the Internet. They will not be able to store, print or email any images that are brought to the screen or any data that is captured from it. The data entry operator will be under the sole control of the data entry application which effectively renders the PC as a dumb terminal.
Issued by
National Statistics
1 Drummond Gate
London SW1V 2QQ
Join CF
You are here: 
.
