Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas says a proposed ’smart service framework’ to introduce a single resident record across government departments will be robust.

He was called on in the House of Keys last week to respond to concerns raised by the information commissioner Iain McDonald - who said legislation need to be brought in first, to protect against public servants misusing such a database.

Tynwald is due next week to be asked to approve certain principles to be applied to the design of a system to introduce a single resident record across government departments. It follows the completion of a feasibility study into the concept, would supporters say would make it simpler to access government services.

Mr Thomas said: ’I believe the proposal for a smart service framework to establish a common citizen identity across government is robust and puts privacy at the heart of its design.’

Mr McDonald has stated he could not support the central record proposal until legislation was in place ’so that civil servants can’t misuse or abuse it’.

In the House of Keys, Lawrie Hooper (LibVannin, Ramsey) pressed the minister over Mr McDonald’s concerns that suggested ’a culture change is required before the civil service can be entrusted with such records and the possibilities those records create and that this requires legislation to ensure the civil service cannot misuse personal data with impunity’.

Mr Hooper asked if Mr Thomas was worried by the ’implication that the current legislation is not adequate to prevent misuse and that, actually, misuse may be occurring that we are not aware of, that we are unable to prevent’.

Mr Thomas acknowledged there were ’important issues’ and there had been evidence of a ’handful’ of data protection breaches.

But, he added: ’Things will change next year because the (European) General Data Protection Regulation will be brought into force in the Isle of Man and we have already included in the legislative programme a Data Protection (Amendment) Bill to deal with some other issues in the slightly more medium-term.’