Security woes risk Labour’s huge data push, ministers told

Radical plans for ministers to scrape real-time data from schools to shape policy moves are in danger of being “screwed up” by tight deadlines and security gaffes, experts have warned.

The government’s little-known “data spine” scheme will see information – including pupil records – fed straight to Department for Education officials.

Claire Archibald, legal director for law firm Browne Jacobson, labelled the project one of the government’s “most ambitious” proposals – but warned that is “precisely where the risk lies”.