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Archiver > ISLE-OF-WIGHT > 2005-06 > 1119770149


From: "Angela & Peter McMurtry" <>
Subject: Records to go Abroad?
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2005 17:15:49 +1000
In-Reply-To: <200506251900.j5PJ073J004461@lists5.rootsweb.com>


Thought this was important enough to pass on. Brings a whole new meaning to
the expression 'lost in translation'

Angela



I also believe Ancestry.com out sources to India - which is probably why
half my family are missing from Census. Have emailed ancestry and asked
them to confirm but so far no reply. Anyway something to bear in mind.





U.K. Plan to Send Records to India is Criticized Plans to electronically
send records of United Kingdom births, deaths, and marriages to India for
indexing are "outrageous", a civil service union says. The Public and
Commercial Services Union (PCS) said the Office of National Statistics (ONS)
was playing "fast and loose" with sensitive information and that hundreds of
UK jobs could be lost. Some members of Parliament seem to agree.



The Office of National Statistics (ONS) said the move would help people to
trace their family histories. It claimed that the project, which would take
about three years to complete, would be secure and would lead to a more
efficient online service.



Labour MP John McDonnell tabled a motion in the House of Commons, urging the
government to drop moves to transfer a database containing details of every
birth, marriage, and death in England and Wales since 1837 to an offshore
centre in the southern Indian state of Chennai. McDonnell cited concerns
about protection of private information in a country that has been shown to
have little regard for such issues.



Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services
Union, slammed the move. "Not only is this highly irregular, it is also
outrageous that a government will so readily dismiss concerns of parliament
in handing over the records of 250 million people to a third party halfway
across the globe," he said. "These are important records charting the
births, deaths, and marriages of this country's population, which should be
maintained securely in the UK public sector by people accountable to us
all," said Serwotka.



The records are currently held in Southport, but would be sent to Chennai,
India, creating around 1,000 jobs for the Indians. About 250 million records
from England and Wales dating back to 1837 would be sent to India to be
transcribed and placed into computer databases.






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