Teaching unions and campaigning parents today condemned senior officials
at the DfES for suggesting that schools had the right to fingerprint
children as young as four without gaining the consent of their parents.

3500 UK primary schools alone have already fingerprinted more than
700,000 children without seeking parents' express consent and in many
cases parents were not even informed this was taking place. Secondary
schools are also introducing fingerprint and iris scanning systems for
library access, school meal queues, and morning registration, again
without asking parents first.

A spokesperson for the National Union of Teachers stated that "our view
is that fingerprinting has to be done in consultation with parents and
teachers and not imposed".

David Clouter, spokesman for parents' organisation, Leave Them Kids
Alone (LTKA), said:

"This latest preposterous statement contradicts what DfES spokespeople
were saying just days ago. DfES now seem to be implying that
children as young as four may 'give consent' to be fingerprinted, so
schools are not required to seek permission from parents. If this is how
the authorities choose to interpret Data Protection laws for our
children then they clearly cannot be trusted."

"Given the current controversy on the storing and sharing of children's
data and yesterday's worrying Government announcement that much more
sensitive information about individuals will now be shared across the
public sector, LTKA demands that the minister immediately clarify
DfES policy in this area - its no longer good enough to pass the buck to
individual schools."

"If a school wants to fingerprint a child for any purpose, parents
should be informed and asked for prior written consent - as is required
for a whole range of far less intrusive school activities. Parents
should also be given clear assurances on exactly who will have access to
the data on these systems and under precisely what circumstances."