Insistent appeal Privacy First to Lower House on SPD

Today, Privacy First sent the call below to all members of the House of Representatives:

Honourable MPs,

In doing so, Privacy First does a clamping profession on you to the draft motion Mulder et al. dated 10 November 2011 on SPD not to be adopted. After all, the motion as it is before us goes directly against the unanimous, well-considered wish of the Senate (and thus your own party's wish as expressed in April this year after extensive deliberation) that the Minister of Health should no longer have financial, policy and organisational involvement in the National Switch Point (LSP). This puts the Upper and Lower Houses in diametrically opposed positions. This sets a dangerous precedent: unamended adoption of the motion could have a disruptive effect on the continued functioning of our parliamentary democracy. Before being adopted, the motion should therefore be revised along at least the following two lines:

- rather than retaining the LSP, calls should be made to explore and encourage possible reuse of LSP techniques without Landelijk Schakelpunt (preferably at regional level);

- Any reuse, further development and improvement of LSP techniques at regional level should be done to the extent possible in accordance with the principles of freedom of choice, transparency and privacy by design.

In this way, a confrontation between the Upper and Lower Houses can be avoided, citizens' privacy can still be guaranteed and there will be no unnecessary destruction of capital.

Sincerely,

Privacy First Foundation

Update 14 Nov 2011: this afternoon, about six civil rights organisations (including Privacy First) did a urgent appeal to the House of Representatives To reject the motion Mulder et al.

Update Nov 15, 2011, 11.55am: Mulder et al. motion is amended as follows: "(...) requests the government to the organisations concerned - including patient organisations, client organisations and privacy experts - calling for the electronic health record to still get off the ground."