By Nick Heath, 26 February 2008 14:51
NEWS
The latest government ID card plans have revealed people will face fines of up to £1,000 for skipping biometric scans.
Silicon.com's A to Z of ID Cards
Click on the links below to find out everything you ever needed to know about the government's ID card plans...
A is for Act
B is for Biometrics
C is for Compulsory
D is for Data privacy worries
E is for EDS
F is for Forgery
G is for Government IT
H is for Home Office
I is for Identity and Passport Service
J is for Jury
K is for Hong Kong
L is for London School of Economics
M is for Money
N is for National Identity Register
O is for Other cards
P is for Passports
Q is for Quarter
R is for Refuseniks
S is for Self-destruct
T is for Terrorist
U is for Utility bill
V is for Verification
W is for When
X is for Xenophobia
Y is for Young people
Z is for London Zoo
Penalties ranging from £125 for not notifying the government of the loss of an ID card, to £250 for not applying for a card or missing an appointment for fingerprint and facial scans, were revealed in the Home Office consultation papers.
The fines would apply to foreign nationals entering or living in the UK, who will be required to have ID cards from November - ahead of the cards' introduction for UK citizens next year.
Foreigners persistently failing to apply or turn up for scans face a charge of up to £1,000 but there would be a reduction in fine of up to £100 for anyone who could prove extenuating circumstances for non-compliance.
Any foreign national with limited leave to stay in the UK failing to apply or turn up for a scan three times in five years would have their remaining leave curtailed.
The Home Office documents predict the cards will be fitted with a "tamperproof chip" containing encrypted information, which would include the holder's face, two fingerprints, personal details and immigration status.
Airport union Unite recently called for consultation on airport workers being among the first groups in the UK to need ID cards.
The widespread rollout to UK citizens, known as 'Borders phase II', is now slated to begin in 2012 - two years later than indicated in an earlier government action plan.
Critics of the scheme said the perceived two-year slip in the widespread rollout of the cards is another sign of wavering support among Gordon Brown's government for ID cards. Doubts in the scheme were further exacerbated by Accenture and BAE Systems pulling out of the procurement process to build the ID card computer system.
Comments
There are 17 comments. Join the discussion
1. Karen Challinor
and there goes one more bite out of the elephant
the last election was in 2005 and the government is desperate to have some ID cards in place before the next election which absolutely has to take place within the next two years
I suggest we vote these clowns out of office
oh and when you do vote don't fall for this crap about votes which are not for one of the two main parties being wasted, or the one about coalition governments being a bad thing
vote for the party you believe in and we might just get a government which represents the people
and if it's a coalition government well that means the politicians actually have to turn up at the house and debate issues rather than just rubber stamping them through the house
2. Richard Davies
what about fining themselves when they overspend and or the system fails! As far as I am concerned the only scan they are getting off me is one of my arse!
Sorry for the mention of the word arse!
3. Chris Goodman
I presume that this dictatorial plan does not include visitors who are holders of proper biometric passports.
One must view the planning from the civil service with much doubt in view of their never ending "get the detail wrong" and "unintended consequences".
4. Charles Wood
Recently, talking to the pensions office, they refused to discuss my information because my birthdate on their records does not corrospond with my actual birthdate. Now they want me to write to them with a certified birth certificate copy. This is the second time they have wanted this.
Meanwhile I cannot access any records. That could be health treatment, or money, or indeed anything official.
What the hell will happen when someone hands me an ID card that is also wrong because the same mistake is transferred from some incorrect source file I have no access to.
Why is someone not apologising profusely and running around to try and fix the issue...why do I have to do their job because of a simple transcription error?
ID cards are a REALLY BAD idea in light of my experience of government record keeping. They will just let officials be officious and like the banks do now: it will be" Oh I am sorry you are stranded in Jamaica Sir, but our database does not hold the same information as that you are supplying"
Wait until it is Antartica....
5. Chris Stevens
You missed the other bit of this authoritarian legislation. If you are caught in unauthorised possession of someone else's Id card you can also get a hefty fine/criminal record.
Think about these for examples:
1. You find a purse in the street containing an Id Card and you are on the way to the police station.
2. You give a lift home to your children's friends and they leave their coat in your car.
Strangely enough I saw nothing in the legislation preventing you from installing an tuned induction loop in a doorway to electrically fuse the chips of any cards passing through the door. There is no definition of who would have to pay for the replacement of non-functioning Id cards.
6. Radical Meldrew
Oh dear. Richard - scanning your details at airports will cause an uproar!
7. Richard
That'll pay for Northern Rock!
Fining the UK's 60 million residents 1000 Pounds each will (almost) pay for Northern Rock.
8. Haydn Rees
Richard; I'd hold fire on the standard Christmas Party fax.
By the time they eventually get round to implementing a successfully ID card scheme some time in the late 2020s, (bought off the shelf from an IT powerhouse country like India) the scheme may be so robust that it can actually retroactively encorporate the cytoproct-o-meteric scan you sent in as a joke.
The principle of never giving them any biometric data applies to gestures too.
9. An ex-labour supporter
I can see the labour party is just working out how to lose the next elecxtion!
10. Ian Farrell
The problem with fining politicians and their uncivil servants is that they pay with our money back to themselves, it's a no win game.
Same with suing the NHS Trusts and all other ministries and quasi government organisations, we always foot the bill whatever happens.
Perhaps we should be able to sue the individuals in the same way that this government wants to make company directors liable for the actions of their companies? Oh yes, I can see them voting for that one.
11. anonymous
Bye bye Labour. Poll tax comes to mind. This government won't last long and neither will this daft scheme. But that won't stop the fools from trying. Slowly the remainer of the UK public will wake up to what this scheme is about and they will simply refuse to cooperate. This government will be in the wilderness for a long long time.
12. GALLEY SLAVE#41
As soon as I win the lottery I am off to somewhere, anywhere, don't care where!
Just a long way from these damn politicos that think they own me
13. anonymous
"I can see the labour party is just working out how to lose the next elecxtion!" (Sic)
Sadly I fear you are wrong for two reasons
- there still seem to be a remarkable number of people who have not yet seen how soon the UK will become a true and comprehensive police state, being naive enough to swallow the "if you are a "normal" Citizen you have nothing to fear" argument along with the even more naive one that this scheme will protect us from something.
- the other parties seem to lack the guts to say loud and plain that they will scrap this scheme and not return 1p to anyone who has spent money implementing it (that would concentrate a few corporate minds on why not to take part at all!)
14. Iain Benger-Stevenson
If I am seen as a law-abiding citizen, with nothing to fear, why hold my details at all? I am not going to commit a crime, am I?
15. Joe Whitehead
"The Home Office documents predict the cards will be fitted with a "tamperproof chip" containing encrypted information, which would include the holder's face, two fingerprints, personal details and immigration status."
It wouldn't happen to be a 8051 would it?
16. anonymous
I am a Britih person and when i was young i saw the old id cards for the last world war.
Now we are in the 21st century, and in one way i approve the idea of an id card.
But due to the loss of sensitive records, you have to ask yourself if this was running now where would this information be.
Also another one.
f someone is killed and they check the records, what guarentee do we have that this form of checking would come up with the right person.
I see in time everywhere a machine solely used for checking everyone. Retina and hand prints are a damn good idea, but until this goverment realises that losng sensitive record like they have done, who would trust it.
17. Kim Foster
Oh My God, does the government really expect us to trust them with more of our private details knowing that it too could just suddenly up and disappear??........one thing this lot of Labour politicans have done is to make us laugh with their silly 'up in the air' brainwave ideas.
Who remebers the Monster Raving Looney Party....??? is that where Gordon Brown recruited his party memebers from????