Have been receiving letters from worried teachers about Big Brother! No – not the one on the television – but the fact that from September 2008, each child living in the UK will be issued with a unique number at birth which will be required to access services (schools, health visitors, housing, benefits etc).
If a family moves, the number remains “attached” to the child, so – the plan goes – children can no longer slip through the net, as in the case of Victoria Climbie.
A laudable intention, and whilst understanding the need to protect children and for agencies to have a robust mechanism whereby they can work together – not sure this isn’t baby identity cards. Anyway – needless to say – am tabling a raft of questions about this new database identifier to follow up on the letters I’ve been sent.
Lynne Featherstone 
Pupils already have a such a number in schools, their UPN (unique pupil number) is generated when that start in a school and is their throughout their school life. Schools, where the pupils, attend can access data about that pupil from a secured website..