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According to media reports confirmed by a conservative party spokesperson, a Freedom of Information Act request revealed that 132 of 171 local education authorities - some 17,000 thousand schools covering 5.9 million children - in the UK allow fingerprinting of students.

The Conservative Party warned that some schools are doing so without direct permission from parents.

'We need a code of practice to stop schools taking this most private information without even asking parents,' Shadow home affairs minister

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Damian Green said in media reports. 'We also need to ensure that the information is not available to hackers or outside bodies, and that the information will be destroyed when pupils have left the school.'

Fingerprint systems are used to allow students to access to libraries and canteens.

'If parents have given permission, this is acceptable, but only on strict conditions that every school should follow,' said Green. The Conservatives said all information should be encrypted so children can not be identified using the fingerprint database, and all information should be destroyed when the child leaves the school.

Liberal Democrat education spokesman Sarah Teather said the figures show a worrying state of affairs in schools.

'The government needs to respond to the concerns of parents and teachers and produce strict regulations for using this technology in schools,' she said in a statement. 'An awful lot of people are washing their hands of responsibility of this issue while this practice spreads unregulated.'