By Andy McCue, 7 November 2006 12:45
NEWS
Prime Minister Tony Blair has again hit out at critics of the government's controversial ID cards scheme, arguing that biometric technology is crucial for fighting crime and securing the UK's borders.
Speaking at his monthly Downing Street press conference, Blair said the argument is about "modernity" and not civil liberties.
He said: "In the end we have a modern world that we are living in that has new and different types of crime. If we do not use technology in order to combat it, then we will not be fighting crime effectively."
Blair said the National Identity Register (NIR) and biometric ID cards will also tackle identity theft and make it easier for people to prove their identity when opening bank accounts and applying for mortgages and the like.
He added: "At the moment the enterprising criminal has it fairly easy. Searching through the rubbish can provide the person with all that they need to steal an identity but forging an ID card and a matching biometric record will obviously be quite another matter."
Blair said ID cards will boost the crime detection rate by allowing police to compare almost one million outstanding crime scene fingerprints against those held centrally on the NIR.
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From 2008, ID cards will be compulsory for non-EU nationals living in the UK for more than three months but Blair said ID cards will not now be issued to British citizens until 2009 at the earliest.
The Home Office is due to produce an "action plan" in December about how different government departments will use ID cards and the identity database. Last month it published the latest cost estimate of the scheme, claiming ID cards will cost £5.4bn to set up and run over the next 10 years.
But the Conservatives, which have vowed to scrap ID cards if they win the next election, called it a "final act of ineffective and expensive authoritarianism".
Shadow home secretary, David Davis, said in a statement: "Labour's record on running huge databases has been one of the serial disasters of the last decade. It is almost certain that the massive database at the centre of this scheme will fail on cost, on time, and on management. It will almost certainly cost £20bn, will solve very few problems, and may make many much worse."
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Nick Clegg, also hit out at Blair's comments and said the NIR will become a honey-pot for criminals and fraudsters.
Clegg said in a statement: "Blair must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if he seriously believes that the creation of the world's largest identity database will be a magic cure for identity fraud."
Comments
There are 32 comments. Join the discussion
1. Rory Choudhuri
Irrespective of where you stand on the ID card debate, surely it's ridiculous for the self-confessed, technology averse Blair to advocate the use of technology for anything. It's patently obvious that the man doesn't understand the first thing about it.
2. Radical Meldrew
Tony's right, when approached by a mugger - just fight them off by using your ID card. Very simple idea isn't it ?
Being positive now, the only effective way the card scheme can be utilised is by making the ID database widely available to all levels of government. Fine so far, but...verification of the card will require biometric checking stations just about everywhere. Can you see this happening? Me neither.
Unless we are awash with biometric checkers, what else can stop criminals masquerading as somebody else with stolen, duplicated or forged cards!
Back to the drawing board!!!
3. anonymous
Public survey says this is what the public wants, i have not been asked the question. I dont want it and why should i have to pay for it. I think its another big disaster waiting to happen. A lot of crime is committed through technology, why are ID cards going to be any different.
4. Karen Challinor
ok Tony put your money where that wonderful smile of yours goes and release the gateway reviews of the project to parliament
show your confidence in the project with something other than rhetoric and bland reassurance
let it stand up to objective scrutiny from the house
and if it can't do that it doesn't deserve to survive
5. Gary Delooze
Politicians tend to latch onto 'solutions' for problems that they have promised to eradicate - in this case "crime" - without knowing (or caring) much abou the intricacies of implementation, or the pros and cons of the solution.
In this case, I suspect that the £25 billion+ that it will eventually cost (that's £400+ for every man, woman and child) could be put to much better use than issuing plastic cards that will 'help' to solve a problem that is dwarfed by this cost. And anyone who has worked in IT (and security) for long enough, as I have, realises that it will not take long until someone bypasses the technology and forces further rollouts, delays, upgrades and costs.
Put simply I believe that this is intended to be a "vote winner" proving that Labour are acting on their pledge to be tough on crime. In my eyes, it's a sham. I know it will cause more problems than it will solve. And I know it will cost far more than we are being told now, and it will take longer to bed in.
So, here's a suggestion. Spend £100 on each household in the UK, providing us with a shredder and education on ID theft. And spend the rest on the NHS (frontline staff only please) or the police (putting them back on the beat). Now that's something I would vote for.
6. Adrian Tawse
So, the assertion is that ID cards will put paid to the sort of fraud that currently results from gleaning information from rubbish. But an ID card can only be validated in person, not online, or over the phone. The sort of fraud perpetrated by stealing credit card details are not done face to face, so ID cards will do nothing to solve this problem. Yet another argument destroyed.
7. Charles Smith
Cost of National Id slashed.
It will be far more cost effective to tattoo barcodes on the foreheads of thd UK public. These barcodes can be cheaperly read by cameras as people walk along the street, visiting Tesco's or attend a doctors.
Visitors to this country will be given a temporary transfer tattoo barcode.
People who fake the barcode by using one from a cornflakes packet will be subject a summary fine.
8. anonymous
More mission creep. This system was going to be purely to emable us to prove our identities, it is now a national police fingerprint register.
Why doesnt this government come clean and tell us the truth about the system.
And as for this stuff about mortgage applications, my last two I have done in my own home with my financial advisor, is he going to have to lug arround a biometric scanner and and access terminal?
Just who is going to have access to this system? At this rate we are all going to have to have one to that we can verify who we all are: in fact what a good idea
each time why not demand that anyone who requires us to prove our ID with an ID card and biometric scanner, does the same, after all they may not be who thay claim to be and just to make sure MP are who they say they are they should be publicly be made to subject themselves to biometric scanning.
9. Sebastian Phillips
Lets all be accused of being Luddites by refusing to accept the modern world we live in. Tony don't try and change the issue from one of civil liberties to one of 'modernity'. What kind of nebulous rhetoric is that? ID cards has everything to do with civil liberties. If ID cards are about modernity then I am a Luddite an proud of it. I work in the IT game and I see daily how things like this expand to encompass things that we not in the original specification.
If we have nothing to hide then what's the objection. I for one don't put letters in the post without an envelope. Not that I have anything to hide in my letters I just don't believe the rest of the world has a right to know my business.
I'm with Karen on this. Open the books up Tony lets scrutinise the whole ID card thing from start to finish, the reasearch, the prject specification, the costings, etc. and see if it stands up. Nothing hide Tony? Then you won't mind being open and honest will you?
10. anonymous
I can't understand why everyone disbelieves our god king emperor. After all he has been proven right on weapons of mass destruction, he has improved the health service and education.
We also have the running to budget olympics to contend with.
So why do you not believe him??
11. Richard
Ah yes, "modern" as in Tax Credit fiasco; modern as in "Single Farm Payment" fiasco; modern as in stealth tax!
The government's examples of using ID cards make interesting reading. See:
www.identitycards.gov.uk
Look at their example of someone simply collecting a parcel who is subjected to a rigorous on-line biometric ID check, (assuming that the computer is working!) leaving a corresponding data trail on the system.
Apparently the government considers this "more convenient" than presenting any of the currently accepted proofs of ID.
What happens if a kind friend goes to collect the parcel for us?
Finally, if we get home & find that the contents of the parcel are damaged; how does this wonderful "modern" ID scheme help us to identify the courier who comes to collect it? Will we each need our own personal on-line biometric ID checker?
(If the photos on ID cards are like the new "biometric" passport photos, they'll be useless for human verification of ID.)
This ID scheme does nothing to help ordinary people live their busy lives, or to help make e-commerce more secure; if it works, it will only help the "authorities" to enforce their power.
This is the warped view of "modern" society that we've recently become far too familiar with.
12. misceng
At a lecture I attended on ID cards the lecturer from a company involved in the ID card development admitted that the biometrics were not infallible. Indeed the failure rate he cited suggests that 50 to 60 thousand honest citizens with ID cards could be unable to pass a biometric check. It could be you.
13. Eyam Concerned
It's about tracking tax payers. Nicely delivered on the back of all the governement generated terrorism hysteria. The ideal solution for any government that is loosing it's grip is threat of a war. It makes everyone paranoid and supportive of whatever hair brained "solutions" they prevent.
You think taxation is bad. Just wait for what is round the corner:
when everything you do is accountable and therefore taxable. Now that's the scary part, makes all this "global terror" rubbish pale into insignificance.
:( :( 1984
14. Jeremy Wickins
Questions have been asked about who would have access to data from the cards - well, according to comments published over the last two or three years:
Any government department;
Any law-enforcement agency;
Lawyers (who would be obliged to check your data because of money-laundering legislation);
Any financial institution (for the same reason as above);
Anyone else who applies for permission (Blunkett even used the example of the local video store).
From my experiences of the Czech Republic (where my wife hales from), you will need to present your card for almost everything, from making a deposit in your bank account through checking in a hotel/B&B, to making a complaint to the police. This, remember, is a legacy of the Soviet regime - why on earth does our government want to re-create it with technology the KGB etc would have wet themselves for?
15. Kevin F Stubbs
Mr Blair, along with most MPs lives with high level security requirements on a day to day basis. ID cards, security checks and the like are a constant in their daily routine. This is why they fail to recognise or understand why ordinary people see this as an intrusion. Hence, they fail to acknowledge the affect on civil liberties that they have already surrendered.
Organised crime and terrorists will be celebrating the arrival of ID cards as a way of producing absolutely cast iron fake IDs once they gain access to the built-in system of generating new false identities that will have to be included in the system to cover police undercover operations, witness protection, victim protection, released convict protection and others needs. Talk about a disaster waiting to happen.
Perhaps Tony Blair should be made to read a wide range of Science Fiction novels to see exactly why his hi-tech plans are going to go horribly wrong.
16. anonymous
Something no-one has mentioned yet - what about the fake scans ?
What fake scans you ask ?
Well, you are walking along the street and two men in suits approach you with "Excuse me sir/madam, we've had reports of <insert some plausible minor offense>, could we see your identity card please ?" Next thing you know, you are sat in front of the scanner.
What you don't know is that these men are not police/MI5/whatever secret spooks dept the government might have, they are criminals who have now just read your ID card and scanned your biometrics.
So armed with accurate biometrics and a copy of your card they let you off with an "I'm sorry sir/madam, I think there must have been some mistake at the office".
Next thing you know, the real men in suits arrive to question you over something far more serious perpetrated by someone with your biometrics and ID card !
Far fetched, well only as farfetched as any plot by criminals intent on making a decent profit.
17. Martin Anderson
Blair clearly doesn't have a clue about the relevance of ID cards and is not qualified to comment, but he likes the idea (it plays well with his authoritarian streak). So he has surrounded himself with sycophantic "experts" who tell him that it is necessary and a good thing.
Like all Blair decisions, this is based on his gut feeling and then he twists the facts to help him justify the action.
In reality it will be a hugely expensive disaster that we will all end up paying for, and not just financially.
18. CPK Smithies
There's lots to be disturbed about here, as previous commentators have identified. One more thing that chills me to the bone is that Blair and co really don't seem to engage at all with the privacy concerns of their opponents. There's no admission that the privacy and security concerns of their critics have one iota of justification. There's even maybe the implication that such critics aren't even worth arguing with. I wonder how Richard Thomas feels about this.
It's going to be amusing when someone rolls out a free, voluntary ID fraud system that doesn't pose a privacy problem and yet addresses all the problems trageted by the government's venture. And this will happen; it's just a matter of time.
19. Lionel A Smith
Now let me see, Blair still does all his writing longhand, with a fountain pen no doubt. Clearly he is well placed to understand the security issues involved in this project. I think not.
I slam all who think like him, never mind civil liberties issues and cost overuns (some into the pockets of friends of lobbiests no doubt).
When will politicians, of any hue, pay attention to those at the coal-face who know something of the issues?
20. anonymous
Will you people stop making logical analysis arguments. This is Tony's project, and Tony says everyone jump up and say aye, or he'll have you listened to while he awards the contract!.
Hmm!
Last government inspired contract I worked on - I eventually tied down the troubles I was having with the suppliers as being that the contract (still to be signed by an authorised government officer) didn't include any requirement for the suppliers to provide documentation on what it was specifically to do, how it would be doing it, or even such details as how users were expected to try to get it to do anything.
And - yea verily, the project was canned because nobody would agree to provide the funds to get the projects requirements documented, let alone things like specifications and user guides produced or, perhaps more relevant to this article - the hardware infrastructure specified, constructed, purchased and installed.
21. Graham Coles
I'll listen to Blair lecturing me on technology and security when the following happens.
1. He can explain why renowned security experts denounce these very notions, yet he keeps perpetuating them as though they were true.
2. He can explain why he keeps telling opponents of the scheme they must have something to hide when his own government is hiding the facts about the ID card scheme despite all the FOI requests.
3. He explains what is new about securing our borders, and why his government has perpetually failed to do this previously, considering that we are living on an island with a single tunnel connecting us the the nearest land mass.
4. He explains what the implications of failing biometric tests are for the percentage of the population that this technology will fail to identify.
5. He starts using examples of govenment projects of this scale that have worked instead of referring to examples in the private sector.
6. He shows us all the weapons of mass destruction that were in Iraq (he did after all promise us that he definitely wasn't lying and they would be found).
7. He reveals to real cost to the taxpayer, both in money and loss of liberty.
8. Hell freezes over.
At least his government did once admit that the ID card system will allow criminals to adopt a new identity that won't be challenged. Good to see at least one way in which it will be used to 'fight' crime; I hope the other ways prove more effective.
22. Roger Huffadine
Slamming your critics doesn't make you right. Tony is in this case - as in many others - not to mention WMD - poorly advised and ill informed.
23. Alastair Warren
Given that we don't have the capacity and infrastructure to cope with illegal immigrants and criminals apprehended now how will catching more of them help?
A lot of ID Fraud is due to the financial sector and high street retailers giving credit.
Let them pay for it.
24. N. S. Young
Most people have driving liecences but it does not stop them from speeding or parking on double yellow line. Once the person intent on creating havoc has his ID card how is it going to stop him making bombs etc.
25. anonymous
Government always try to find a cure for a problem instead of looking at the true cause and correcting the root of ant problem
26. Mike Richards
I'm finding Blair's concentration on 'modernity' over civil liberties to be very disturbing. The same sort of language was commonplace in the 1930s when many decent people, disenchanted with democracy, flirted with 'modern' forms of government such as fascism and nazism.
Blair already oversees a Cabinet of compliant nobodies and a Parliament so supine it might as well be disposed of; for all the talk of democracy elsewhere in the World, he seems to want to dismantle it here in the UK.
27. anonymous
Most people who suffer from the delusions shown by our revered god emperor (oh sorry, that's one of the delusions is it?) like 'WMDs in Iraq are a threat to British citizens', 'we have made a good job of running the country', 'Trust me ID cards will solve crime, immigration and the common cold' find themselves in nice comfy padded cells. Here, it seems to be a choice between a padded cell or number 10. The lunatics really have taken over the asylum!
28. Matt H
The only reason I can see that Blair is continually pushing for this scheme is that he knows his time is short.
By the time this scheme is rolled out, he'll be out of the picture. It'll then prove to be a great weapon with which to bash the opposition when Labour get voted out.
They'll blame the newly elected Government when the whole thing comes crashing down, and claim that the Labour idiots had got it all planned out properly...... but the that the new Government had screwed up.
Look at poll tax etc., it won't the first time nor the last!
29. Anonymous
Media attention is all that TB craves. I have heard that he will be starring in a new web-based public information film extolling ID card benefits.
This will be available online soon, just search under "The Blair Bitch Project"
30. Brian Willis
This is another example of this government trying to use technology to paer over the cracks in their innefective stratgies to reduce crime.
I beieve it would be better spent on helping children in need and other people in our society through social education and support programs.
31. Norman Marks
This government is not unique. All governments mistakenly think that the act of passing bills solves the problems instantly. Where Blair & co are madder is in passing masses of laws and involving more and more consultants in the formation of policies. Huge projects such as ID cards, motorist monitoring, etc. are not helped by the unscrupulous, greedy, small-minded, lying incompetents represented in Management and IT consultancies. These people talk the talk but can never walk the walk. The sadness is that politicians (very few of whom have "smarts" in abundance) are so easily hoodwinked into donning the "Emperor's new clothes". We desperately need a national/government 'think tank', but populated by people without agenda who can actually think.
32. Pete Woods
Is it me? or have I just slogged through I don't know how many comments, without reading 1 in favour of ID cards (or TB for that matter.)
P.S. this is not that 1.