The debate is - or should be - MUCH wider than that of information 
sharing on ie after death.

In particular - and local authority list members will confirm this - 
certain legislation restricts usage of particular data
(especially Council tax records) which can make it difficult to follow 
individuals when they move from address to address.

There are clear Public Interests in keeping track of people (enforcing 
court / probation / asstd Judgements)
and for people similarly wanting to evade same.

This is where the real debate should go, I think.

How far should 'the state' know where we are and how to find us in the 
absence
of the conscientious 99% (??) of people who duly (try and ) notify all 
concerned.

BoB Waixel.


Roland Perry wrote:

>In message <015401c73891$18145eb0$8d529056@Nick>, at 10:37:02 on Mon, 15 
>Jan 2007, Nick Landau <[log in to unmask]> writes
>  
>
>>After all, how many times do people complain about bureaucracy and the 
>>different departments that one has to ring up. In a way the argument is 
>>saying that bureaucracy protects people's liberty - which it does (ie 
>>not having one vast single Government dept) - although I am not quite 
>>sure members of the public might see it that way. Of course, the public 
>>might want it both ways - which is not unusual.
>>    
>>
>
>I have my own bone to pick here: as a Self Assessment individual I have 
>to send forms regarding my income to the Inland Revenue. And that's 
>right and proper. But it seems they can't pass the answers to another 
>bit of the Inland Revenue that's also interested in my income - the 
>child tax credits people. They are adamant I must write to each "branch" 
>separately. On the other hand, they don't (as yet) claim this failing is 
>as a result of DPA :)
>
>  
>
>>And presumably the restrictions which are in place because of such 
>>concerns do then hamper exchange of information after someone dies - 
>>after all they were formerly living and presumably those checks don't 
>>suddenly disappear because they have just died.
>>    
>>
>
>If you are arguing that dead people should have their secrets kept, then 
>that's a different debate (worth having, but a much wider issue).
>
>On the other hand, if death has been authenticated, then the "checks" 
>will still be done, but should be organised give a quick and clear 
>result of "OK to share". I'm not surprised if they don't.
>
>  
>
>>Indeed a good way to obtain information about a living person might be 
>>to claim that they had just died! ;)
>>    
>>
>
>It seems to me that a lot of the practical problems (and duplicate 
>requests) could be solved with a better system for an authenticated 
>Death Certificate that could be used throughout the bureaucratic empire. 
>After all, we are only going to have more and more different sets of 
>people to tell as life gets more complicated.
>  
>

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