By Nick Heath, 16 November 2009 16:47
NEWS
The controversial ID project has hit another delay, with the government missing its own deadline to get the cards into the hands of Manchester residents.
The Home Office announced today that people living or working in Manchester will now be able to enrol their details for an ID card from 30 November, with the first cards issued around 10 days after enrolment.
The new rollout date reveals how the government's schedule has slipped: volunteers living in the Greater Manchester area were originally due to be issued with the biometric identity cards in October. However, a Home Office spokesman admitted to silicon.com that the cards "were not issued" last month.
The missed deadline is laid out on the ID cards section of the government's public information website, Direct.gov.uk, which reads: "Identity cards will be issued in selected locations first, starting in the Greater Manchester area in October 2009".
(Screenshot: Nick Heath/silicon.com)
Take-up of the cards in Manchester is likely to be low, with Home Office figures showing just 0.4 per cent of the population of Manchester - fewer than 2,000 of the city's 450,000 residents - having registered to get an application form for an ID card.
Manchester residents aren't the first UK citizens to be able to enrol for the cards: civil servants and contractors working on the ID cards scheme have been able to apply for an ID card from 20 October.
As the "application process [for ID cards] began in October" for civil servants, some of whom are based in Manchester, a Home Office spokesman denied there had been a delay to the rollout of the cards.
He described the difference between beginning the application process and actually issuing ID cards as "semantics".
The setback in delivering cards to Manchester residents was criticised by the Liberal Democrat Manchester Withington MP John Leech.
"The government's failure to issue any cards whatsoever despite their October target is symptomatic of the scheme as a whole. It has been a farcical process throughout, full of prevarication and clothed in secrecy," he said.
"I would like to see the system as a whole scrapped. This bungled policy has already proved to be an expensive, embarrassing nightmare for the Labour party," he added.
Dr Gus Hosein, senior fellow at the London School of Economics and co-author of a book on the ID card scheme entitled Global Challenges for Identity Policies, said the scheme has been plagued by over-optimistic deadlines.
"It is a slow motion car crash. Back in 2006 when the Identity Act was passed you had ministers talking about issuing the first cards within a year or two," he said.
"The biggest problem is that every month they delay the deployment of the card there is a knock-on effect on their wider adoption.
"Before it will become useful for banks, shops or government departments to sign up to the scheme there will have to be at least one to two million people with the cards.
"At this rate it is going to be in the 2020s before we reach that point and the scheme gets going."
The delay to the Manchester rollout is the latest in a long line of setbacks for the £4.6bn scheme: in July this year the government dropped plans to force new airport workers at Manchester and London to get ID cards following opposition from airport unions, while plans to make the cards compulsory were also formally shelved earlier this year.
Comments
There are 14 comments. Join the discussion
1. Chris Tolmie
Not to worry, their DNA is probably in database somewhere and the local CCTV cameras are catching their every move. Should they decide to sing a protest song they will be in breach of the 2003 Licencing Act. And the new Information Minister will make sure we never find out what happened to them. Welcome to 1984 - it just took them longer to get here that Orwell predicted.
2. Michael Dixon
Having had our passports compromised, my wife and I had to replace them. But if an i/d card had sufficed for international travel (and been available) then we would have had a card. But we would not want two such items now. Oh dear.
3. anonymous
Whatever you think, this is clearly about to go live with the public, and the first cards have already been issued to staff and contractors working on the project (and that includes Manchester), and the first cards will be in the general public's hands in about two weeks time. What about getting out there and actually seeing how the IT elements are working? You know, stuff people who read IT websites might actually be interested in. The biometric enrollment process maybe? What does that involve? Who's supplying the gear? How long does it take? Is it a smooth process? What's the capaicty installed? The card production process? Who does it, how many can they /will they produce in the coming months, how does it take to long to produce a card? The data encryption techniques? Are they up to ICAO standards? And maybe something a bit strategic and thoughtful? How about asking if the system actually works from the customers perpective? Rather than the endless commentator diatrabe "it won't work. It should be scrapped" which we've all heard endlessly before you should go have a look for yourself. Manchester is only about two hours from London on a train. An on the spot report about the technology, suppliers and usage might be genuinely informative from an IT readers perspective. Just a thought.
4. karen challinor
"Before it will become useful for banks, shops or government departments to sign up to the scheme there will have to be at least one to two million people with the cards."
and what will these "one to two million people" want or use the card for ? the only places they might be of any use would be "banks, shops or government departments"
if the government had any faith in it's own scheme then at least "government departments" would already be geared up to handle the cards not just UKIPS
I have yet to hear a single, solitary valid reason that will stand up to even light scrutiny that justifies the need for the things, there is no "killer app" for ID cards or the NIR
it seems at best a purely artificial stealth tax as you pay to register and pay again and again to keep the database updated and receive nothing you didn't already have in return
5. drew stephenson
a small silver lining to an otherwise very black cloud
6. Richard Sarson
I still carry an Identity card from 1950. I suffered no ill effects at the time. Nor did any of my contemporaries. I can't wait to get my hands on one of the glossy new ones. Mine is getting a bit dog-eared, and coppers seem not to consider it a valid ID. Shame on them.
7. drew stephenson
But Mr Sarson, how much has it cost you to update your ID card in the last 59 years and what would have been the penalty had you forgotten at some point?
In reality a simple paper & Photo ID card would acheive all of the governments stated objectives and cause little concern to most objectors to the current scheme.
It's the databases, costs and fines that concern a lot of us.
8. karen challinor
Mr Sarson - does your 1950's ID card come attached to a national database that monitors and tracks every time you use your card ? does it contain your biometrics ?
about the only things that your 1950's card has in common with the shiny new plastic one are :-
they are both useless - being a solution looking for a problem, although at least your 1950's card actually did have a reason for it's introduction unlike the shiny new one, which apparently has none beyond the generation of revenue
they are both imposed on the electorate though the government claim that take up of the new card is voluntary, despite the ID card act saying the home secretary can make you have one if they so choose
they both assume that a person is some form of evildoer and that the person must prove that they are not, rather than the way we've always had it which is the presumption of innocence until proven guilty
so yes if you want a return to the era of fear, suspicion, intrusion and presumption of guilt by accusation that you had back in the 50's go right ahead and sign up, do you want rationing back as well ? and anderson shelters in your garden ?
9. GALLEYSLAVE
Dear Richard
Do you still look the same as you did in 1950?Good try old son!
10. Richard Sarson
I posted my last comment to get a rise out of Karen Challinor, and I did.
Was she around in the 1950s, to know what it was like? She seems very sure about that decade, which I actually experienced, and found rather good.
11. Radical Meldrew
Mr Sarson, how many times have you moved since you've had that old card?
Although the new ID card's take up is purely voluntary at this stage...you will still be fined if you fail to keep it up to date!
12. anonymous
This was doomed to be delayed, like most government projects.
13. ERM
Delayed card issue caused by the fact of 'no takers'?
14. karen challinor
for information - I was born in that era Mr Sarson, its one of the reasons I don't like unwarranted intrusions into my privacy, as I found I had none in that era, everyone who met me thought they already knew everything about me that they needed to know and I was told everything I needed to know about them
this was thanks to the original internet of mothers gossiping over garden walls, there were no secrets, however there were lots of suppositions and very few facts, quite a few people were tarred with very broad brushes just for "looking a bit funny", "being a bit of a dreamer", "having ideas above their station" or the best one "knowing things they shouldn't"
I fell into pretty much all of those categories at one time or another and suffered because of it, even as a child
so yes Mr Sarson I remember the era well and have no desire to return to it
I will admit it did have it's good points and I think we've managed to retain them to the present day, however it had it's bad points too and for those who fell foul of them they outweigh the good by a long way
I hope your experience of the era was better than mine
and any time you want to get another rise out of me you go right ahead