By Andy McCue, 1 December 2004 13:35
NEWS The government has again hit out at critics of its controversial compulsory ID card Bill, claiming it is not an infringement on civil liberties and that it will improve security in the UK.
Speaking at a press briefing today, Home Office minister Des Browne MP attempted to dismiss the "myths" created by opponents of the ID card scheme and said "this is not a Big Brother database".
Browne said those who cite the terrorist bombings in Madrid last year as evidence that ID cards have not worked in Spain are missing the point. "It does not stop it but it helps you police it and interdict it," he said.
He also ruled out any plans to include DNA samples on the ID cards and the national identity database but said future governments may change that policy.
"We are not planning the possibility of putting DNA on to the cards," he said. "We live in a parliamentary democracy. It's not possible for any Parliament to bind any other Parliament."
The running costs of the ID card scheme have been estimated at £550m a year by the government but this does not include the cost of setting up the infrastructure, the database or the biometric readers needed to check the cards.
Current Home Office estimates put that cost in the region of £186m plus £250 to £750 per biometric reader. For the lowdown on ID cards check out this silicon.com Cheat Sheet.
The UK's data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner, last month said he did not believe the ID card Bill would be compliant with the UK's Data Protection Act (DPA).
Browne said revisions to the Bill mean that the bar on an individual's right to access the information held on them in the National Identity Register has now been removed and that the government will continue to hold discussions with the Information Commission.
"We will change it if necessary but I believe it will be compliant with the Data Protection Act," said Browne.
Browne defended the robustness of biometric technology, claiming it would have to be introduced anyway to conform with international travel and passport regulations anyway.
But while calling ID cards the "gold standard" of verification he was unable to say how the scheme would prevent criminals using false identity documentation at the point of registration to obtain an even more legitimate ID card with that false identity.
Comments
There are 22 comments. Join the discussion
1. Guy Herbert
What Mr Browne says the Government is not planning to do, is scarcely a reassurance. The Home Office admits its plans are not finalised (for example, with respect to Hazel Blears MP's famous "a scanner in ever doctor's surgery" remarks). And the legislation allows the Home Secretary to vary the content and application of the NIR by Order. That's leaving aside the disingenuousness of suggesting the extent of "the database" is limited to the NIR, when it will in practice provide a linking key for dozens of other nominally discrete databases.
2. Graham Coles
Lets just sift the facts out of this article.
ID cards have not stopped terrorist acts.
US Government debated and rejected idea of ID cards soon after September 11.
Any present or future Government can require DNA on these ID cards.
Very expensive to set up and run.
Publicly hackable database with your most personal information. This could make identify theft a hundred times worse.
The bill had to be revised to make it compliant with the data protection act!
The home office minister attempting to defend this inexcusable bill has no idea how it will prevent criminals obtaining false IDs.
So lets check the figures:
Cost of an intrusive bill that won’t really prevent terrorist attacks or combat fraud - 3000 million pounds
Cost of running the scheme - 500 million pounds a year.
Cost of losing your freedom - Priceless.
Tell you want, spend half that amount improving education and health care, send me a few hundred million pounds for the idea and I've just saved the taxpayers billions and improved their quality of life. Much better idea that wasting it on stupid ideas that don't achieve anything. Unfortunately this goes against current Government policy.
3. Andrew Robb
I've said it before. I do not believe that a biometric ID card can 'guarantee' identity. At best it can only form a foundation on which an identity can be built. This can only begin to happen 10 years on, after the majority of adults have a card.
Has the government considered positive benefits to the individual, such as using their ID card scheme to allow 'vagrants' (e.g. house-boat and caravan dwellers) the vote?
4. Shaun Gilchrist
Nicely put Graham.
I've yet to hear how exactly ID cards are meant to make us more secure. How? You're not going to be forced to carry them, so what's the point? "You don't have your ID card Mr Terrorist? OK, no problem. Just report to the police station with it within seven days would you? Thanks. Have a nice day!"
Give me strength!
5. Roger Huffadine
The great thing for the government is that they can encrypt other information into a secret part of the card and nobody will ever know.
However, as the bill is currently drafted they have to get approval of "both Houses" to make changes like DNA profiles - they can't use the Parliament Act ;-)
6. John Marchant
Based on the previous lamentable failure of IT companies and government departments to deliver working systems anywhere near on time, and anywhere near budget, this one is going to be a disater.
Expect the scheme to be ten times over budget, ten times less functional than promised, and up to ten years late, with the tax payer paying in the end.
7. Karen Challinor
Couldn't have put it better than Mr Coles
I would like to add an addendum regarding the government's record on large scale IT projects which is frankly abysmal, so I'd add an extra zero to Mr Coles figures
8. Richard Davies
I have no confidence in the Government pulling this off; the DVLA / police database effort is already going wrong...reporting incorrect details, meaning that manual searches must be done anyway. If this happens with ID's (and it will) I think we're all in serious trouble. I don't want the Government 'tagging' me, because they cannot catch the terrorists. Someone is going to access / hack this central database (or abuse it internally) and create chaos, or it will just fail by itself. Either way, a failure is immanent and it is the law abiding public that will suffer.
9. David Sparkes
I find the irony overwhelming. Just saying "This is not a Big Brother database", i.e. using Orwellian imagery to defend the database, when one of the most central tenets of an Orwellian government is doublespeak, comprehensively fails to convince that the database is not, in fact, a "Big Brother database".
In addition: expert analyses of the inadequacies of the ID card scheme are now dismissed as myths; non-compliance is believed compliance; public concern is wholehearted support and the opinions, prevarications and evasions of pro-ID card schemes are presumably now championed as facts.
Presumably such logic will be applied elsewhere: guilt is now innocence and corruption is now probity. It'd keep the crime figures down.
10. Eddie
... And Mad Cow Disease can't cross species and it is safe to eat Beef
11. Richard
See Front Page of "Computing."
Today's issue of Computing gives a different, more believable account of the government's real intentions.
http://www.computing.co.uk/news/1159786
Apparently government expects all major transactions between individuals and businesses to require on-line checking of ID cards and to be recorded to be recorded on the government database.
Not "Big Brother?"
12. Ken Hall
I would like to add a few points.
In agreement with earlier posters, This Government's record with large scale IT infrastructure projects is lamentable. For example the benefits system which crashed this week. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4044085.stm
That benefits system is tiny compared to the proposed ID card database.
Secondly; if you need your card to access any Governemnt service, (As the Government has admitted) what happens when the system crashes? You are in a Car accident, "You can't be treated because we don't know who you are!"
Thirdly the Orwellian double speak is rampant in this Government. Ignorance is strength, war is peace, Saddam is a current and real threat, The world is safer without Saddam etc. (yet "My Government recognises that we live in uncertain times and face increased threats from terrorism" - Queen's speech). etc.
When the governemnt says one thing, the opposite is usually true.
Remember this is from the Government that brought you "Iraq has WMD" and "We will solve the transport chaos" an let's not forget "The streets will be safer" and the amazing "We will not increase taxes" and the unforgettable "our Government will be whiter than white and always act with honour and integrity" As well as "If any minister knowingly misleads this house, they will resign or be sacked".
Why do I not believe them anymore?
13. anonymous
"This is not a Big Brother database". YES IT IS. There are lies, damn lies, and then there is the Home Office.
Read the book*, the New Labour Government propaganda even uses similar words and ideas to justify this travesty! Our only hope is the Government's appalling record of implementing large IT projects.
Some questions come to mind:
1. Why has there not been an '9/11' style attack in Britain?
Its likely that the British intelligence services are doing their job: trying to protect us. They seem to be coping without ID cards. They will have to wait another five- or six-years for them to come into use. If they fail, and there is going to be a major attack, it will have happened by then.
2. Why were ID cards not introduced during the IRA attacks in the seventies and eighties?
3. Another claim for ID cards is that they will protect the Government's resources.
How would an ID card stop the alleged abuse of the state's resources by David Blunkett?
*For New Labour politicians only: 'Big Brother' is a character in '1984', a book by George Orwell (strangely Orwell's real surname was Blair). The book warns about the abuse of Government power, especially in the areas of propaganda and information, and where this abuse can lead.
PS Other than the source of its name and the constant surveillance of its participants, 'Big Brother' is not normally taken to refer to the reality TV programme, if it did then Des Browne's statement would be true.
14. James Button
So the government says ID cards will be ineffective.
Well - If they will not be linked to DNA, because that's too intrusive, then whats the point of having an ID card that cannot be uniquely linked to the proper holder ?
15. anonymous
Has anyone considered that some of these really bad ideas may have been sabotaged by the rank-and-file workers in the IT firms contracted to implement them? IT workers are a notoriously liertarian bunch, and simply and knowingly making bad design and implementation decisions may be all it takes to stop a system cold.
16. Jim
If the idea of the ID Card is to verify your identity, why will it be an offence to fail to notify them of a change of address? Criminals/terrorists will not do so!
I presume you will need the ID card to vote, so they will know whether or not you have voted. What safe guards will there be to stop the ruling party (government) from using this information to target non-voters?
To be effective:
The ID card will need to be produced when you book into hotels, guest houses etc. These checks will be recorded on the central database!
All person entering the country will need to have temporary ID Cards - more civil servants to produce these documents.
This list and the cost of implementation will grow.
IT IS ALL ABOUT CONTROL AND I DO NOT WANT TO BE CONTROLLED!!! I WANT TO GO WHERE I LIKE AND DO WHAT I LIKE. IT'S CALLED FREEDOM AND AS LONG AS I AM NOT DOING ANYTHING ILLEGAL IT IS NONE OF THE GOVERMENT'S BUSINESS!!!
17. mark copas
This is NOT a democracy, let's get at least one thing straight. We WILL have ID cards whether we want them or not. We WILL have to pay for them. The project (probably won by EDS) WILL be late and overbudget. The data WILL be used by government and security forces as they see fit. This on top of all the CCTV cameras already out there (more than any other country IN THE WORLD) there WILL be no freedom - I wonder if that contravenes the Human rights act..... Theres only one way to stop it - and thats a bit unpalatable - vote TORY at the next election next year. It will only be stopped if there is a general mobilisation to stop it. I bet most people (the silent majority) wont even bother to fight it even if they disagree with it.
18. royston
it is not a big brother database but everyone in the uk knows due to past experience that it will soon will be given time. the government here likes to tax everything it can and it wont be long before government agencies will be applieing to use the id card database useing the excuse"its ideal for our use and cost effective" can the government tell us for definite that this database is not going to be used for anything else other than its origonal purpose? GARANTEED!! we all know its anything to save cash or to make cash PERIOD!!
19. anonymous
"Need-to-know" - often quoted in security circles.
And the main reason against ID cards, since there is no need for the Govt to know.
20. Malcolm Ripley
Interesting how a failed government IT project is the governments fault. As far as I was aware the government consists of politicians and civil servants not IT experts. Instead they hire IT contractors to do the work and therfore its those IT contractors who fail. Which will mean a lot of them are reading this!
Reality check needed. The government already knows who you are, where you live, how many are in your house (council tax database). They know you're criminal record (elgibility for jury duty). They know who you voted for at the last election (each ballot is numbered and marked against the elctoral register). They know your car registration, tax, date of birth and insurance (DVLC and car tax). They know where your car was (speed cameras). They know your and your houses previous occupants debt record (credit reference) etc etc.
The ID card is trivial in comparison, already exists in other countries for many many years and will be introduced in many more, so its inevitable and will be necessary for travel abroad. For myself I'll fight to ensure that I have full access to my information something which I currently do not have for any of the above. Ok the electoral register at the library.
21. Colin Milner
Typical government speak is:
Concentrate on what is not said rather on what is not said.
The ID cards will mainly be used for tracking tax and assets of the UK citizens. You only need to try and open a bank account now, under new 'guidlines' to see how the identity is used. At least at the moment you have several ways of establishing your identity. If your ID gets mislaid/stolen you will have an enormouse job trying to restablish your own ID, as the computers will not be programmed to allow for our human failings. Much like getting fined for missing the tax deadlines.
22. anonymous
I disagree totally with this ID card abuse of freedom proposed in the UK.
On a similar vein Flouride additives to water are 'good for you'- allegedly but can you unravel what is going there either? Check the 'NPWA' website and see what is planned for us taxable lab rats!!