By Nick Heath, 21 October 2008 16:36
NEWS
A Home Office minister has mooted turning UK driving licences into ID cards, sparking accusations the national biometric database will be forced in by the back door.
Speaking today at the Biometrics Conference 2008, identity minister Meg Hillier said there was "nothing to stop" drivers' licences or other documents from being designated to work as ID cards.
silicon.com's A to Z of Biometrics
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A is for Accuracy
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C is for Cash machine
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J is for Juan Vucetich
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L is for Liveness testing
M is for Mobile phones
N is for Network security
O is for Oxford
P is for Palm
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R is for Registration
S is for Signature verification
T is for Twins
U is for Universality
V is for Voice verification
W is for Walk
X is for X-ray
Y is for Young
Z is for Zurich Airport
"In time it is possible to designate the driving licence or other documents to be counted as an ID card," she said.
Hillier told silicon.com afterwards the designated licences or documents would contain the same biometrics and security as an ID card.
"There is nothing to stop us in law designating something else in the longer term, although there are no plans to do so up to 2012," she said.
Under the Identity Card Act 2006 the Home Secretary can "designate documents" that will require anybody applying for them to be placed on the National Identity Register (NIR), the backbone of the ID card scheme.
Each ID card, expected to cost £30, will contain a chip holding a scan of a person's face and two of their fingerprints, which can be checked against a facial scan and set of 10 fingerprints held on the NIR and used to verify a person's identity.
Hillier went on to say she expects take-up to eventually mirror that of passports, which stands at about 80 per cent of the UK population.
She told the conference the cards are about "tying an individual to an ID" and that once this had taken place, having a card would simplify identification for proof of age, criminal records checks, bank loan applications, for employers and in a host of other scenarios.
Hillier's presentation at the conference showed ID cards also playing a part in accessing public services from 2015, with the minister showing a slide referencing maternity allowance, tax returns, TV licences and incapacity benefit.
Critics of the biometric cards claim it proves the government will push the cards onto the public by making it almost virtually impossible to opt out of the scheme in the UK.
Phil Booth, national co-ordinator for anti-ID cards pressure group NO2ID, said: "It is clearly a compulsory scheme if in order to continue driving, travelling abroad or get a loan you have to be registered on the scheme.
"It is coercion up to the point of compulsion."
Simon Davies, director of human rights group Privacy International, said: "It will bring almost the entire population into the scheme.
"The question is, will this just be the first of many databases to connect into the ID card system? There is the communication data database that has funding already and even this proposed database of mobile phone registrations."
Over the next three years the government will also consider other professions to join airport staff on its list of "critical workers", who will be legally required to have an ID card.
Hillier said the government is confident that threats of legal action from the British Airline Pilots Association over the scheme will not delay the rollout to airport workers in 2009.
Comments
There are 13 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Given that I watched UK Border Force on Sky One last night and they were *legally obliged* to release suspected illegal immigrants who were unable to identify themselves to the UK Border officers this is a complete farce.
Furthermore, unless the UK Border Force could obtain travel documents (e.g. Passport) for the individual, they could not legally deport them.
Beggaring beleif, yet again.
You would have thought that any suspected illegal should remain in custody until they could be identified or could identify themselves with suitable documents.
Isn't not being able to identify yourself to a Police Office (UK Border Force are equivalent) an offence, or is that just for British Folk.
Utterly, utterly Ridiculous
2. Chris Tolmie
It is simple - I will refuse to carry mine. I am British and live in a free country, even if I am arrested for breathing here. I object to having my personal information stored on a hidden and inaccessible database run by 1984 bureaucrats who know me but I will never know.
3. Chris Tolmie
It is simple - I will refuse to carry mine. I am British and live in a free country, even if I am arrested for breathing here. I object to having my personal information stored on a hidden and inaccessible database run by 1984 bureaucrats who know me but I will never know.
4. anonymous
The degree to which this government, national and local, is abusing it's privileges to spy and snoop on the ordinary lives of ordinary subjects has to be stopped. Otherwise the Magna Carta and all it stands for becomes worthless.
5. Chris Tolmie
It is simple - I will refuse to carry mine. I am British and live in a free country, even if I am arrested for breathing here. I object to having my personal information stored on a hidden and inaccessible database run by 1984 bureaucrats who know me but I will never know.
6. GALLEYSLAVE
As I have said before,
By hook or by crook they will get their way...
7. Dave Brown
OK, now its been confirmed. The only way to stop this creep of big brother is to kick this government into the long grass at the next election.
8. Matt H
Russia always had a way of dealing with Government / State Officials, as have the French in the past. Now I'm no Wolfie Smith, but it has got to be about time to start standing up and make the Government hear, whether by voting or other means......?
9. Karen Challinor
"nothing to stop us" and "nothing in law" kind of implies that they know people don't actually want or need this scheme and they intend to force it on us anyway
politician speak for "nyer nyer nyernyernyer we're going to do it anyway and you can't stop us"
wonderful to have such a caring group of people, listening to our problems, enacting our wishes and running the country in our best interests isn't it
... oh wait I've got that the wrong way round again haven't I
we definitely need a new system of government
10. Radical Meldrew
The new driving license will henceforth be known as the STASI - State Transport Authority Statutory Identification.
This says it all really.
11. Karen Challinor
Chris - refusing to carry your driving licence won't stop this, if your license is requested then you'll simply have to present it at a police station within 7 days as you do now
what this means is that the first time you renew your licensem which happens every 10 years, you will need to report to an interrogation centre (such an evocative name, but then the government chose it not me) and submit your life history to the NIR for inclusion otherwise you will not be issued with a license and therefore will not be legally allowed to drive any more
plus the license will probably cost a lot more as it's now got all those extra overheads to include in the price
remember when passports were cheap ? expect driving licenses to go the same way
12. anon
And what will they do if people just refuse to apply for driving licences? My licence runs out in about 6 years - if the State of the Great Leader is still in existance by then I'll just break the law & drive without one.
However, by 2010 I can't imagine that Meg Hillier or her cohorts will be having very much to do with what happens in the UK government.
13. Karen Challinor
I believe driving without a valid license is already covered in law, as I remember it starts with fines then possible confiscation/crushing of your vehicle then prison sentences
plus how do you get your vehicle insured and taxed without a valid license ? thats two more charges to throw at you
anyone seen any mention of ID card in any of this
no ?
well thats the point
the ID card will be forced on you and there will be no way to contest it in a court because it will always come back to some other issue like failure to obey an instruction from the home secretary or a failure to produce a valid driving license