The Cabinet Office has today launched a public consultation entitled ‘Smarter use of your data to improve Government services.’
The consultation seeks views on the principle of reducing the duplication of personal data notifications across Government while protecting privacy and security.
The ‘tell us once’ approach would make it easier for the public to deal with Government and reduce bureaucracy.
Because Government Departments are separate legal entities, customer information such as change of address is not automatically passed between services. Multiple notifications can be required to update personal information, which can be inconvenient and time consuming for both customers and Departments.
A solution is now being considered which could develop applications that allow changes made to personal information in one system to be communicated to other systems across Government, where there is explicit consent to do so. As well as this, applications could also be developed for other purposes such as generating demographic information for service planning.
The consultation document states: ‘A citizen’s data privacy should be at the centre of any solution, incorporating both data protection legislation and the introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation.’
The consultation ‘Smarter use of your data to improve Government services’ is open until 29 September 2017 and is available online at: https://consult.gov.im/
Paper copies of the consultation can be obtained from the Welcome Centre at the Sea Terminal in Douglas and from local authority offices.
