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Phil Booth Profile picture
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31 Jul, 5 tweets, 7 min read
Hmm. So the shadowy #JBC, a part of @UKHSAgovuk (which is, I note, still answering #FOI requests as @PHE_uk 🤔) is now hiring *permanent* staff:

jobs.ac.uk/job/CHZ649/nhs…

HT @samdownie
Noting that neither @UKHSAgovuk OR the #JointBiosecurityCentre were listed as official @DHSCgovuk agencies in its latest update...

gov.uk/government/pub…
...and that, after months of delay, @DHSCgovuk FLAT OUT DENIED #JBC needed any official establishing documents, framework agreements, MoUs or data sharing agreements - and that, despite saying it "ensured robust privacy standards", it had done no #DPIAs:

whatdotheyknow.com/request/joint_…
#WTAF is going on?

Its single webpage makes it clear that #JBC is a @DHSCgovuk #directorate, with a Director General. And, aside from being #permanent (i.e. not just #COVID-related) roles, the job ad refers to "large teams of #analysts" 👇

WHOSE analysts: PHE's? T&T's? Or...
...the 1000s of "private industry" contractors, clearly this Government's preferred way to run critical national services?

The scale of #MachineryOfGovernment and #accountability breakdown here is quite extraordinary.

And the H&C Bill? Says #SweetFA:

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More from @EinsteinsAttic

Phil Booth Profile picture
1 Aug
On this I can agree with @Dominic2306, and go further.

#SW1 #IT and #IG has been in a parlous state for well over a DECADE, and more.

A year and a slew of inquiries after the @hmrc #ChildBenefit #DataBreach in 2007, we #FOIed every Government Department about the #databases...
..of #PersonalData they held. (Initially just the ones containing over 1 million records.)

I'll have to dig up the responses, but I clearly remember only 4 or 5 (out of 24) even had an #InformationAssetRegister, i.e. just a basic list of all the #databases for which they were...
...'#responsible'.

The responses from @cabinetofficeuk & @10DowningStreet were even more appalling; they admitted allowing officials to routinely make copies of #population-scale data "for policy reasons" with no #oversight, no #audit, no defined #IG processes, and no idea of...
Read 13 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
31 Jul
So the Gov't has gone from promising a review of #VaccinePassports in February...

bbc.co.uk/news/uk-561696…

to officials saying #domestic uses are "dead" and "not going to happen" in May...

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

to the review stating they won't be #mandated in early July...
...to @BorisJohnson announcing they WILL be #mandatory for (mostly) young people from the end of September:

thetimes.co.uk/article/labour…
Meanwhile, and despite MONTHS of denials*, it turns out the Government has already spent £23.6 million on #VaccinePassports 👇 and has already cut deals that could run until 2023 at least...

inews.co.uk/news/politics/…

__
*
Read 13 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
30 Jul
If millions fewer young people are doing twice-weekly #tests then obviously those numbers will go down.

And that children are no longer #mixing regularly will have significantly reduced #transmission amongst their own and other age groups, i.e. family members.

I'm not sure...
...this is 'news', though it's another failure of (public health) comms if folks are being left confused.

More concerning, however, is the implication the #models - which one assumes were those used to predict the effects of re-opening schools - either didn't or couldn't cope...
...with this entirely #predictable event, and that they will somehow not be able to handle winter #predictions even after young people go back to school in the autumn, and testing resumes 🤔

If 18 months into the pandemic, Government is still just 'driving by #dashboard' then...
Read 4 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
30 Jul
Good to see #motivation in addition to #competence, #honesty & #reliability.

It always bothered me that #sociopaths could pass Onora's three tests of #trustworthiness*; they can be entirely #competent, brutally #honest & (predictably) #reliable but...

_
*ted.com/talks/onora_o_…
...I still wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable #trusting them. (The same applies to corporate entities - some possibly even more so.)

@medConfidential's formulation - #consensual, #safe and #transparent - addresses a subtly different problem, which is that NO system will...
...always be 100% #trustworthy, and certainly not 100% #trusted - given #trust is ALWAYS 'in the eye of the beholder', and NEVER a property of a system.

#Governance and #accountability are key, of course. And maybe this time, we'll actually get what is #needed - rather than...
Read 6 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
29 Jul
Let me tell you a tale about #BTECs, which I taught in the early 90s. (Names changed.)

Some of the students I taught General Art & Design (GAD) BTEC also did an A-level or two, but many of them didn't. And far too many of them had already been failed by schools that treated...
...'non-academic' kids as inferior, slow or disruptive. Some of my students did have problems; most often no fault of their own. But they showed up. And together, we learned.

I still remember the 'lightbulb moments' - the pieces & projects when young people found their stride...
B, who wanted to make a monkey's head with the brains showing (I think he went into film special effects); little S, who channelled Botticelli in her chicken-wire and papier-mâché shell; J, who discovered his photographer's eye with my good friend, Rob; P, and his 'graphical...
Read 9 tweets
Phil Booth Profile picture
21 Jul
There seemed to be some confusion about (the use of) words in @CommonsHealth Committee yesterday morning, so here's a [Thread] to try to clarify.

First "#commercial". It is of course the case that many parts of the #NHS use commercial providers, e.g. of software, whether that...
...is @Microsoft365 for word processing, spreadsheets & e-mail; or IT systems to handle patients' records in hospitals (e.g. @CernerUK) & General Practice (e.g. @TPP_SystmOne, @EMISHealth, @CegedimHS); or software to drive complicated equipment like #MRIscanners, etc.

This is...
..entirely normal use of #commercial software & software services, for which the #NHS body is the #DataController. Apart from when that software goes wrong, I don't believe many would have concerns about this.

Then there are #commercial providers of #NHS services, about which...
Read 13 tweets

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