Birmingham City Council inform us that they have over 1,300 databases – but that they do not know exactly how many, and have no central list on what those are.
Most of the databases are developed and managed by Service Birmingham, who say it would be too expensive to find out that information. So, what have we found out?…
We managed to locate 37 databases run by varying branches of Service Birmingham. From ‘complaints’ to ‘compliments’, different databases are ran by a range of 8 organisations.
Below I have listed the managing departments and which databases they own:
Chief Executives Directorate:
- Customer complaints
- Compliments
- Elections register
- Comments
- Marketing communications lists
- “etc”
Children Young People & Families:
- Education files
- Admission appeals
- Social care files
- Disability register
Local Services Directorate:
- Leisure centre membership
- CCTV
- Burial plots
- Street traders
- Anti social behaviour
- Neighbourhood advice
Housing Directorate:
- Tenancy files
- Complaints
- Homeless lists
- Rent arrears
- Benefit claims
Birmingham Audit:
- Data matching
- Landlords
- Residency
Revenues & Payments:
- Council tax
- Benefit claims
- Land charges
Adults & Communities Directorate:
- Care records
- Blue badge information
- Protection Lists
- Police checks
Development Directorate:
- Planning applications
- Highways CCTV
- Parking control
- Grant
- Home improvements
- Travel plan information
The personal information that is entered into these databases are kept under a strict set of guidelines by the Data Protection Act 1998.
These findings show that with a certain degree of perseverance it is possible to get the results you need. As Paul identified in an earlier post, there is hardly any interest in people trying to track down this sort of information. The same goes for electoral receipts and documents that could be harbouring a front page story.
So get asking!