By Nick Heath, 10 June 2009 08:47
New home secretary Alan Johnson has inherited a raft of ambitious and sometimes controversial tech projects from Jacqui Smith, who stepped down from the post last week.
Top of the list is the £5bn ID cards project, the scheme to provide a biometric identity card for UK citizens and foreign nationals in the UK.
Johnson takes over the project as the government prepares to issue the first cards to Manchester residents on a voluntary basis in September, ahead of a full rollout in 2012.
Question marks around the project include security concerns over enrolment and the lack of available card readers, as well as doubts over its future after the Tories pledged to scrap the scheme.
Only slightly less contentious is the Interception Modernisation Programme, the government proposal for ISPs to retain details of all communications over the internet, including email and social networking activity, in a form that can be processed by public authorities. The government is currently consulting with ISPs on the plans.
Johnson will also have responsibility for the Police National Database - a national police intelligence system, allowing forces across England and Wales to share information on people, objects, locations and events.
The system will bring together data from five operational areas of policing, custody, crime, intelligence, child abuse and domestic abuse into a central system. It will start to be rolled out in 2010.
Johnson's remit will cover the rollout of the £1.2bn e-Borders system, due to start in 2010, which will cross reference the personal details of almost all passengers travelling to and from the UK against a watchlist of suspects.
Johnson will also have ultimate responsibility for the National DNA Database kept by UK police. The database was recently the subject of a ruling by the European courts, saying that the details of all innocent people should be removed.
In response the Home Office has proposed it will delete the profiles of those arrested but not convicted of a serious violent or sexual crime after 12 years and delete the profiles of anyone arrested but not convicted of other offences after six years.
Johnson can also expect to face fresh pleas from lawyers for Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon, who made unsuccessful appeals to Smith to block his extradition to the US to face prosecution.
Photo credit: Office of Alan Johnson
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