Civil liberty groups are worried because pupils are being asked to pay for meals by scanning their fingerprints into a machine instead of using cash.

The scanning machine debits the cost of their food from their account and also stores information about any allergies, so that pupils can be alerted to foods they cannot eat. It can also give parents details of their child’s diet.

Several schools have started using fingerprinting identification for library books, but only Humphrey Perkins High School, in Leicestershire, has used it for meals.

Brinkburn School, in South Tyneside, announced yesterday that it was also installing a fingerprint recognition system, which it would start operating next month, and Derbyshire County Council said that it was piloting a similar scheme for five of its schools.

Stephen Goan, the deputy head of Brinkburn, a secondary with 920 pupils, said that the school was about to link up with the neighbouring King George V school and needed to speed up meal services.

The scheme costs £22,000 and has been funded by South Tyneside council, which may widen it if it proves to be successful.

Mr Goan said that all parents and children had been consulted and none had objected. “We have a very supportive parent network but if they did object, we have alternative arrangements such as swipe cards,” he said.

“We decided to go for fingerprint identification, or biometrics, instead of swipe cards because there is nothing to lose — everyone brings their finger to school.”

He said that the thumbprint made by pupils was not stored as a print but translated into a number.

Parents would pay by cheque at the beginning of the term or the start of the week and the children would manage their own accounts. The system would have an inbuilt daily spending limit.

Mr Goan said that he would pass on information about what pupils were eating to parents. “The aim is to promote more healthy eating.” He emphasised that he was the only person who had access to the database, but conceded that if there were a court order to release information on the system, such as a print, the school would have to comply. He said that he had no guidance from the Department for Education or local authority, with the department saying that the scheme was a matter for local authorities.

Penny Chatwin, the deputy head at Humphrey Perkins, in Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, said that the system the school introduced a year ago had already made pupils healthier. “The scheme has been a resounding success and the children find it really exciting,” she said. “Their eating habits have also improved, with more children picking fresh fruit and fruit salads.” She admitted that a couple of parents had been unhappy with the fingerprinting.

The human rights group Liberty said that the fingerprint scheme was unregulated. “Most importantly, is the biometric data of children being shared, has permission been sought from parents, and is there truly no alternative?” the group said.

The Information Commissioner’s Office said that safeguards were needed to ensure that information was secure.

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