How serious are Tories with database rollback promises?

The Conservative Shadow Minister for Justice today gave more details on her party's proposals to rollback Government databases and personal data collection if elected, but refrained from making it a firm election guarantee.

After claiming there will be a Conservative government in the future - but conceding it may not be in the next few months - Eleanor Laing MP laid out five "basic principles" and 11 "practical proposals" during a Westminster eForum held today in central London.

Proposals to see "fewer not more databases" and to "where possible [allow] personal data [to] be controlled by individual citizens" seemed to gain good reaction from the attendees, but Laing could not guarantee such words would lead to action if the Conservatives win the next general election, rumoured to take place on 6 May.

When IT PRO asked the Shadow Minister whether the proposals were firm pledges, she referred to them as "possible actions" and something that a Conservative Government "one day would do". She would not give a commitment on timing.

The practical proposals, such as scrapping both the DNA and ContactPoint databases, restarting local council use of remaining databases and giving more power the Information Commissioner when it came to audits, imposing fines or outlining guidelines, came from the Conservative report entitled "Reversing the rise of the surveillance state," initially launched in September last year.