Renew your passport and beat the ID cards plan

If you want to stay out of the government's identity card database for the next 10 years you might want to renew your passport now.

Throughout May anti-ID card group No2ID has been running a campaign encouraging people to renew their passports, which the group said will keep people out of the National Identity Register (NIR) - the database behind the system - until 2016.

The group warned: "If you wait until autumn, you risk giving up personal data to be used for the government identity database. Pay £51 for a 10-year passport while you can. The charge for ID registration and a record for life will be at least £93."

And now the MPs in the Liberal Democrat home affairs team have applied to renew their passports.

When the ID card system is up and running - around 2009 - when people apply for a new passport they will be issued with an ID card as well. It is possible to opt out of receiving an ID card with the passport until 2010.

People who opt out will still have to pay for the ID card - and still have their fingerprints, iris scans and personal details taken and stored on the NIR.

But as passports issued now will be valid for 10 years, people will be able to stall until 2016 before they have to register for an ID card.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said ID cards will be expensive, intrusive and ineffective, and encouraged anyone concerned about ID cards to renew their passport now.

He said in a statement: "We are encouraging people to apply for passports early, to avoid having important personal details added to a database, which may well not be secure."

Read silicon.com's A to Z of ID cards for the lowdown on this controversial project.