Home Secretary unveils plans for national ID card

Home Secretary David Blunkett has unveiled draft legislation, outlining controversial plans for the introduction of a national ID card.

Mr Blunkett has stated that he believes the proposals will be effective in the fight against terrorism and wants them to be compulsory by 2013. However, while opinion polls have shown that there is public support for the cards, which will contain each person’s biometric details (facial and retinal scans and fingerprints), civil rights campaigners fear that the scheme violates the right to privacy of British citizens.

Mr. Blunkett’s draft bill will also set out proposals for a National Identity Register to hold details of all 60 million people in the UK. The legislation is also expected to set out safeguards to prevent government officials from misusing data.

The draft bill has been published as a large-scale trial of the card technology gets under way. The trial will involve 10,000 public volunteers who will have their faces and irises scanned and their fingerprints taken, in order to test the technology required to make the cards a reality. The trials have begun at the UK Passport Service’s London headquarters, with a further three sites across the country to be announced later.

Ministers believe that as well as helping in the fight against terrorism, the cards will also help to crack down on ID fraud, human trafficking and illegal working, as well as stopping people from exploiting the health and welfare services.

Last week, the government also announced that it is to make carrying false identity papers a specific offence for the first time. Anyone found with forged passports, driving licenses or other official ID will face up to 10 years imprisonment.

However, civil rights campaign group, Liberty, said that the government was effectively introducing an identity tax. Liberty director, Shami Chakrabarti, said that there were privacy implications surrounding the ID card scheme and also said that no government had yet shown itself to be capable of managing such a database.

Terrorism expert, Professor Paul Wilkinson of St. Andrew’s University also said that he was not convinced that ID cards would help the fight against terrorism.

He pointed out that the majority of the September 11 hijackers were travelling under their own names, so would not have been picked up by an ID system and that al-Qaeda were notoriously good at finding ways to sneak people across borders.

Biometric checks are expected to become compulsory for anyone applying for, or renewing, passports from 2007 and biometrics will also be introduced into driving licenses at a later date. This would mean, by 2013, when ministers are due to decide whether to make the ID cards compulsory for everyone, around 80% of the population is expected to hold either a biometric passport or driving license.

If the cards are made compulsory, they will have to be produced in order to access a range of public services including the NHS and benefits. The estimated £3.1 billion cost of introducing the ID cards will be met by increasing the cost of passports and current estimates suggest that we will be charged £35 each for a card.

(KmcA)