Plans to introduce data sharing on a national scale - the so-called super database - have been labelled an ambitious aim that is unlikely to be achieved

According to experts the creation of such a database has so far been prevented by the Data Protection Act (DPA). The Government is reportedly planning to ease the privacy protection law to make way for data sharing between departments.

However, Sarah Burnett, senior research analyst with Butler Group - Europe's leading independent IT research and advisory organisation - says data sharing on a national scale is going to be very challenging.

She points to the many data quality and integrity issues and barriers and is of the view that such an ambitious project is unlikely to succeed.

"The Data Protection Act has been with us for over two decades. Before that, organisations bought, sold, and passed on personal information held in their databases to other organisations without the prior knowledge or consent of the individuals concerned," she said.

"The DPA has put an end to all that very effectively. Organisations now need the individual's permission to pass their data to other departments or companies.

"Furthermore, private individuals can register with telephone, fax, and postal preferences services to stop the deluge of unsolicited sales letters, telephone calls and faxes that they would otherwise receive.

"The DPA applies to all, to the public sector too, where compliance with it has been high on the Government agenda to date.

"For example, the UK's five year long e-Government programme mandated that councils improved their document records management processes by identifying areas where existing records management policies had to be improved specifically to meet the requirements of Freedom of Information and Data Protection legislation.

"Unfortunately the DPA has also had some unexpected side effects.

"It resulted in much overreaction in some areas. For example, parents at some schools were told that they could no longer photograph school plays, for fear of breaking the law.

"Health workers became so concerned about the risk of litigation that in some cases they stopped writing the true diagnosis of cases in case it led to private prosecution by those patients who accessed their records under DPA.

"In more recent years the Information Commissioner's Office has acted to dispel myths about the DPA by providing advice on specific scenarios, but it is not always easy to understand how the law applies in different cases.

"In 2005-2006, the National CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Programme which set out guidelines for CRM projects for the public sector, indicated that under DPA rules, local authorities could not transfer citizen data held in their council tax databases to their CRM systems.

"There were also suggestions that the Government Connect project, which is to provide single sign on to the UK Government's online services, could prove to be unlawful under DPA.

"The situation was not helped, when at the time, none of the Government departments concerned, could provide a convincing answer to the problem.

"Now once again compliance with the DPA is under the spotlight as the Government attempts to deliver its agenda for transforming public services. Data sharing is a key part of that and is causing unease in the sector, hence the plans to change the law.

"Whilst this has been going on in the public sector, the private sector, in contrast, seems to have found ways of operating within the DPA framework.

"For the past 20 years, the sector has continued to modernise services in a variety of ways' whether through new integrated IT systems, or new service models such as outsourcing.

"Data sharing on a national scale is going to be very challenging with many data quality and integrity issues and barriers. Such an ambitious aim is unlikely to be achieved."