FAILURE: Civil liberties criticism of child "unique identifying numbers" as a back door to ID cards is at odds with government performance to date.  The 9/11 Commission, the Laming Report and the Bichard Inquiry all cite the failure of government to act on intelligence which might have prevented killings.

Take the death of Victoria Climbié - three housing authorities, four social services, two police child protection teams, an NSPCC team and two hospitals failed to intervene, despite 12 separate opportunities to save Victoria's life.

All used unique identifiers to let end users knit disparate data together to get the full picture.  But the IT failed.  For example, ministers have revealed 83m NI numbers for a UK population of 60m, and 2m more patients registered with GPs in England than the 50m population - a problem known of for 25 years.  So much for unique identifiers.

Adrian McKeon

Infoshare Limited

Kingston upon Thames, Surrey