By Tim Ferguson, 27 July 2007 14:02
NEWS
The national ID card project has a new boss following a reshuffle of Home Office ministers.
Meg Hillier is the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Identity, with responsibilities that include the identity card project, Freedom of Information requests and criminal records.
Hillier is the MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch and has represented Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest in the London Assembly in the past.
Recently a government tribunal ruled the status of the ID card programme will be made public after calls for a Gateway Review by information commissioner Richard Thomas.
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The Office of Government Commerce, which oversees the Gateway Reviews, has appealed the ruling and is now taking the matter to the High Court. No date for a hearing has been set.
The scheme has been called "out of control" by researchers at the London School of Economics, who suggest recent changes - such as dropping the iris biometrics - have not significantly reduced costs.
The government has succeeded with other ID programmes such as the ePassport scheme, which it claims has blocked 4,000 ineligible visa applications.
Comments
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1. Graham Coles
So, we have a project in tatters; a government running scared as it wastes even more taxpayer's money in the courts attempting to bury the gateway review findings; a court date that probably won't happen before the next election; a failed e-passport scheme that opens up UK citizens to identity theft by allowing criminals to clone an entire passport without even touching the bag it's sent in being passed off as a great success by mentioning Visa applicants that have little or nothing to do with UK passport requests; and to top it all, the convenience of having one minister in charge of both the ID card project and denying any requests for information about it ...
How come whenever the government push for ID cards, they always bring out the tired and discredited line about 'people who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear.'
If they actually believe that, perhaps they should ask themselves precisely what they have to fear about the status of their insidious little project becoming known by the taxpayers who are footing the huge bill for their mistakes?
2. Richard
Let's hope she has the guts to cancel this dreadful ID project!
Too much has already been wasted;
Much more could be saved by immediate cancellation.
3. anonymous
Slight conflict of interests here?
Responsible for ID cards, Freedom of Information and er.. Gateway reviews