By Andy McCue, 27 October 2004 15:40
NEWS The government will now issue standalone compulsory biometric ID cards as part of changes to the draft ID card bill issued by Home Secretary David Blunkett today – despite growing public opposition to the scheme.
The cards will be issued with passports but will not be incorporated into either the existing passport or driving licence as previously proposed, with a standardised online verification service used to check card details against those held on the National Identity Register (NIR).
The changes are part of the Home Office's response to a Parliamentary Home Affairs select committee report by MPs in July, which broadly backed the ID card scheme despite some major reservations and criticisms.
"I will now bring forward legislation to bring in a compulsory, national ID card scheme," said Blunkett in a statement.
A new executive agency incorporating the UK Passport Service and working with the Home Office's Immigration and Nationality Directorate will now be set up to deliver and run the ID card scheme.
But a summary of findings from the Home Office's consultation exercise also published today highlights the fact there are still serious concerns about the ID card scheme from bodies ranging from privacy groups to the Confederation of British Industry over the scope, security and management of the project.
The Law Society, for example, raises the question of whether it will prove too costly to pursue individuals who incur a ÂŁ2,500 fine for refusing to register for the ID cards.
Initial government research into the public's views on ID cards found 79 per cent in favour or very much in favour of them, with only 13 per cent against and eight per cent unsure. More recent research, however, included in the consultation summary shows support has dropped significantly with only 31 per cent now in favour, 48 per cent opposed and only eight per cent supportive in principle even with reservations about the Bill.
Responding to MPs' concerns about the government's track record on large IT projects, the Home Office said the ID card scheme will be introduced in an incremental manner both in enrolment of the population and roll-out of the technology. But it hit back at MPs concerns over the security of data held in the NIR, which will underpin the ID card scheme, and which organisations will have access to it.
"The Government would not agree with the use of the word 'sensitive' to describe most of the data to be collected and stored," the Home Office response said. "Most of the data which will be held by the scheme is already public and is used routinely in everyday transactions, like opening a bank account or joining a library."
The response also avoided answering MPs' questions about who would have access to the data in the NIR, and said only that online ID checks would only be used for high-risk and high-value cases and for everything else a visual check using the photo on the card would be the norm.
The ID card consultation summary can be found here and the Home Office's response to the select committee report can be found here.
Comments
There are 13 comments. Join the discussion
1. Charles Wood
The problem is not with ID cards per se, it is with what happens when it goes wrong for an individual.
Just to throw fat on this fire: what exact benefit does forcing my child to have a seperate passport to travel to the USA have to national security of either nation?
It is a good example of the bureacracy that grows around these ideas once in government hands.
Or are all those Japanese cartoons they watch really about an Asian plot to get children manufacturing explosives and turning on their parents...and I just happened not to notice?
2. anonymous
The main problem is with the database behind the ID cards. The initial information may already be public, but do we honestly believe it will stay that way? The government can't even get the NHS IT systems to work or in budget, and that is tiny in comparison with the proposed national database. A few months ago the ID card was not going to be compulsary, now it is. What next? It appears that George Orwell didn't know the half of it.
3. Peter Goddard
Any ID card is better than no ID card.
I have had a French ID card for almost twenty years: they are free (but not compulsory) in France, any everyone has one: who wouldn't? they make life easier unless you are a crook. And the best thing is that even when returning to my native England, I don't have to worry about a passport: real freedom!
4. anonymous
The problem is not the cards - the problems are (a) the database and (b) the compulsion.
There's a huge difference between a citizen having a means to prove his identity (if he wants to) and the government - or any one else - having a means to obtain his identity against his will.
This government seems to have forgotten that it is accountable to us, not we to them.
5. anonymous
When is the next election ?
6. Mark SPLINTER
id card application form bonfire, trafalgar square, see you there.
7. Mr.Y.K.Raja
*Why only personalised signature system will protect us from fraudsters and hackers?
Personalised Signature System (PSS) is so unique because pre-printed ID stickers will enable us to personalise signature on any document instantly anywhere in the world. This will deter anyone from using stolen, forged and fake document because in the event of crime police will have the option to expose abuser's photo on "Wanted for questioning" page in national papers. This will deter fraudsters, hackers and thus forgers effectively without relying on equipment, databases, PIN number or even ID documents. We must realise that un-personalised signatures is the root cause of the problem.
We have not yet found answer to this question. Why would anyone get tempted to use stolen, forged or fake documents when they know that in the event of crime we will know who they are?
National ID Card system will fail to deter fraudsters, hackers and forgers the way PSS will do because
a. It will not be effective where equipment to read these cards is not present. In reality crooks will be encouraged to use fakes of national ID cards at such transaction points to make easy money safely. In other words rather than deterring fraudsters, it will divert fraudsters to other sectors. Personalised signature system will deter fraudsters from misusing any type of national ID cards.
Chip and PIN system will fail to deter fraudsters, hackers and forgers the way PSS will do because
It will not make other financial documents such as cheques, bankers' drafts, travellers' cheques, authorisation notes, contracts etc. safer unless supported by personalised signature system.
8. Malcolm Ripley
Its not the ID card that's the problem. Its the data related to that c ard. If the data is false (deliberate or accidental) and the assumption is that the data is correct (rightly otherwise what's the point) then it can be misused or be the cause of miscarriages of justice. The way to prevent this from happening is to let every person view their own data and for that same data to be available in hardcopy format for the individuals own records. If the police harrass somebody then every time their ID card is "read" then the transaction is recorded and hence you have an official log of police harrassment. If the data is wrong, accidentally, the individual can ensure it is corrected. If the data is wrong, falsified, then the hardcopy acts as proof of tampering. The only people who have anything to hide by not allowing such access is a government whose intentions are not what they say. Access to ones own data is of no criminal use i.e. criminals and terrorists will not benefit by seeing their own data. Illegal access to somebody elses data is no different to what is possible now anyway (albeit a bit more involved). However, illegal access should be harder to do but also easier to trace.
Applied correctly ID cards can provide more freedom and peace of mind for the individual not less. At the moment there is a lot of data held about us that we can't access or is held in so many places that it would cost us a fortune and several months to collate.
9. anonymous
Thinking with the US way of thinking, how much compensation will i be entitled to after some hacker gets my details from the database for these ID cards?
10. Roger Huffadine
Blunkett is just another government idiot being led by technologists who need profit.
This has little or nothing to do with security.
11. anonymous
Biometric data is NOT already public Mr Blunkett. Once it gets hacked from your database (and it will, sooner or later) trying to sort out identity theft will get even harder
12. anonymous
no way-blunkett get lost.we already have national insurance cards and a databse to identify those on it.if nhs employees haven't the guts to challenge those they believe are coming into the country to illegaly scrounge treatment off us-TOUGH.
chip and pin etc takes care of identity fraud.
that leaves terrorists-an id card won't help them with their incompetence and terrorists will gain the knowhow to bypass it anyhow.are the police going to stop everone they see and scan their cards????
it's obvious that there are people who are using 9/11 for their own agenda!!!
seriously think i'm gonna carry 1 everywhere i go-NOPE!!!
i'd rather face a 2,50 fine-OR maybe accept the card and give 2,500 to alqeida or some other enemy of the uk.
think again-next year me and thousands of others will be looking to join the hard-core movements of civil liberties movements in order to screw this plan up.
the goverment should seriously think again on this one-what if individuals pool their money to develope the technology to bypass the system?????
no,my father and uncles didn't fight in the war to let the uk become some kind of nazi style politically correct big brother nanny state.
they are afraid that due to falling election turnouts a civil war is coming-and they are right i believe,because they have stopped listening,and this will fast track it by maybe 5-110years.
13. anonymous
FORGET SCANNING OUR KIDS FINGERPRINTS TOO!!!
re-proposals to fingerprint kids for registration.we had a wonderful system when i was at school,the teacher KNEW the names of his/her class and checked the ticks against the number of pupils,i believe the technology was call a Head.Count version 1.0 .
nice try blunkett cronnies!!!!
Hey how about this one too-how about getting our kids to spy on us and report any politically incorrect comments or behaviour or anti-goverment activism.worked quite well for Adolf H.