A number of Department for Transport (DfT) databases have been flagged up as a cause for concern in a study of information collected by public sector organisations.

The Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust survey certified the privacy impact of the DVLA register, Highways Agency (HA) cameras and the DfT’s ITSO interoperability framework as amber – meaning ‘a database [that] has significant problems and may be unlawful’.

However, the trust said the DfT ‘deserves praise for transparency’, referring to detailed explanations on its website of who it shares information with and why.

The report added that data from the HA’s 1,000 cameras is the subject of significant ‘growing public concern’. The trust also raised concerns over ITSO smartcards, which it claims can be insecure and are in need of ‘watching’.