Category: Articles

The ANPR secret

Police forces are making extensive use of their numberplate cameras, but proving coy about their locations

This was one of a series of articles I wrote on police ANPR. It eventually led to a Guardian page lead story in August 2012 – based on the information gleaned from the eventual failure of a Freedom of Information request to Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, which revealed a “patchy” national system – and an article for MATTER published in August 2013 which I co-edited.

The cameras mentioned on the M5 were still in place at the end of August 2013. Following the loss of the FoI case there is, of course, no way of being sure if they are run by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary (whose area they are in). Continue reading “The ANPR secret”

Online health records can save lives

The crisis-hit £12.7bn NHS IT programme is under attack from the Tories, but it is working well in Scotland

The much-criticised National Programme for IT only covered England, as each of the four UK nations runs its own healthcare. This article looks at Scotland’s relative success in building its emergency care summary system, covering virtually the entire population. Continue reading “Online health records can save lives”

Government reverses Brown’s passport pledge

The Identity and Passport Service has confirmed that passports will in future require extra information from applicants – their fingerprints

Gordon Brown told the Labour party conference that new passport applications would require no more information than was required at present. The Identity and Passport Service said this was true… except for applicants having to give their fingerprints.

All articles on ID cards here. Continue reading “Government reverses Brown’s passport pledge”

Devon force divulges ANPR towns online

Devon and Cornwall Police has published the location of some of its road surveillance cameras on its website, despite these normally being secret

This was the first article in a long series on police ANPR, based on the Freedom of Information request mentioned here. It eventually led to a Guardian page lead story in August 2012 – based on the information gleaned from the eventual failure of the FoI request, which revealed a “patchy” national system – and an article for MATTER published in August 2013 which I co-edited.
 Continue reading “Devon force divulges ANPR towns online”