By Andy McCue, 16 May 2005 12:55
NEWS Prime Minister Tony Blair will reintroduce the controversial national ID cards bill in tomorrow's Queen's Speech but a senior government official has admitted that concessions will have to be made to ensure its passage through parliament.
The bill was dropped before the General Election after the government ran out of legislative time to push it through the House of Lords. Then Blair's massively reduced majority in the House of Commons raised questions over whether renewed opposition from rebel Labour MPs and the other political parties would kill the ID cards plan.
But the first hint of concessions to appease opponents came in an interview with Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain on Breakfast with Frost at the weekend.
Hain insisted there is still strong public support for ID cards but said Labour's reduced majority will have an impact on any new legislation.
"I think we can now build a consent at the beginning and that will be very healthy for everybody concerned," he said.
Concessions could include a strengthening of the Information Commissioner's powers of scrutiny over the ID card scheme and beefed up protection around which parties have access to the information held in the national identity register that will underpin the ID cards.
That should be enough to appease most of Labour's own MPs who voted against ID cards last time with today's papers reporting Hampstead and Highgate MP Glenda Jackson as saying the rebels won't be trapped into getting into a "virility test" with Blair over the bill.
But the cost of the ID cards plan is still likely to remain a sticking point for other opponents in the Commons, with the Liberal Democrats making a key election campaign pledge to ditch ID cards and put the money into front-line policing.
The latest government figures on the ID cards scheme, as outlined in the Regulatory Impact Assessment by the Home Office put the cost at some £5.5bn over 10 years.
Comments
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1. Richard
Expensive, dangerous white elephant:
This projected 5.5Bn pounds, plus the extra required for card readers etc., plus the usual cost overruns will produce not a single hospital bed, school teacher or policeman on the beat.
It will increase the “productivity” of neither the public sector nor industry.
Inevitably, most of the cost will be spent on imported equipment and on foreign owned IT companies.
The recent LSE report demonstrated that ID cards will deliver none of the claimed benefits – even if the project is successful – and will seriously damage society.
Why pursue such an expensive, dangerous white elephant.
2. Julian Nicholls
I don't have any particular problem with an ID card. Indeed, I would probably carry one happily if they weren't compulsory.
However, I doubt the government's ability to implement it efficiently. This is not a cheap shot at our government, I would be just as fearful if any of the other parties were in.
3. Richard Davies
forget the cost and consent for now...how will they implement the system? and how are they going to secure it / stop terrorists from just hitting the system with DDOS attacks etc. which could leave everyone unable to authorise / authenticate and therefore unable to access necessary services etc. Also, how do they intend to prevent unauthorised access to this data and maintain the integrity etc. when all past projects tell us that this one will also fail badly...i.e. over budget, insecure, useless, rubbish data, the list goes on.
4. anonymous
The writing is on the wall in the UK... Compulsory national identity cards, 3 million CCTVs, 4,000 police road cameras, facial recognition and numberplate spyware, internet surveillance and logging, compulsory fingerprinting, DNA profiling of the newborn, satellite tracking of people and vehicles, RFID tags on people, inland revenue lie detectors, your private health records turned over to the new UK government database, the new children's database, the end of secret ballots (now digitally numbered and archived), abolition of some jury trials, the planned suspension of parliament and the constitution (civil contingencies act), government attacks on the independence of the judiciary, locking people up for years without trial or charge, sabotaging human rights, ending the presumption of innocence, inserting the State into every human relationship and activity. This is not Nanny State, dear people, something very much blacker is on the way..... And to people who say, 'I don't mind having an ID card', are you prepared to force my aged parents (85 and 87) to attend a police station to be fingerprinted, photographed, and god knows what else, on pain of criminal prosecution or denial of health services? And what will happen when you lose your wretched ID card, or have it stolen, or cloned, or confiscated by the police (as they do passports)? "Come with us, your papers are not in order...." Sounds familiar?
5. Roger Huffadine
Apart from the well known arguments as to why the scheme won't work.
Why do I need to pay £85 to have my fingerprints copied on to a card when I carry them with me at all times?
6. Karen Challinor
The card is not a problem, apart from the cost and it's compulsory nature.
What is the problem is the other seven eighths of the bill which gives the government unprecedented powers to monitor and regulate the activities of you and me.
Purchases over a certain amount will be logged, if the government doesn't think you have the resources to make such a purchase then expect a knock on the door.
Access to government buildings will be logged in the national database and your entrance may be denied if the government doesn't want to let you in, this includes libraries.
Access to NHS treatment may be withheld if the database says you can't have it
The DP registrar cannot access the database on your behalf to verify the contents without permission from the home secretary, and then only such data as is deemed pertinent will be available
If you develop a terminal disease your taxman will be notified, if you fail to notify the govrnment, who already know, you will be fined.
The nature of the information to be held is a secret except for a few items which have been released, why is also a secret.
The list goes on, try reading the bill, I have, it's very sobering.
7. Trev
Polititons and governments have proved over the years that "THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED"
What is to stop any future government putting our medical records, criminal records, financial records or any other information on these cards. The hardest part for them is to get the cards accepted, once they are in they can and will change them for whatever purposes they choose. Dont fall into the trap of giving these people even more control over yourselves.
8. Karen Challinor
The card itself contains very little data
What it does contain is your identification number in the national identity registrar, which contains lots, which doesn't comply with the european court of human rights, which you have no access to, which will determine the future course of your life