Confused about the Government's plans for identity cards? I was after reading today's newspapers, with some suggesting the scheme is being speeded up and others that it was being delayed or even shelved. Following a speech by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today, things are becoming a little clearer.
No, the scheme is not being dropped, despite the concerns over data security following the loss of child benefit records on 25m people. Smith argued that ID cards would protect people from data fraud (though many will need convincing after Datagate).
It is true that the Brown Government will phase in ID cards more slowly than Tony Blair envisaged when he pushed the legislation through parliament - perhaps five years later. "National roll out", when most people will be on the national ID register, is now expected in 2017 rather than 2012. So there wouldn't be a final parliamentary vote on switching to compulsory cards for all until after 2017, a very long way down the track.
Ministers are trying to reassure the public that they are not rushing ahead willy-nilly but some of their safeguards are not as strong as they imply. For example, Smith said people would not need to have an ID card as well as a biometric passport. What she didn't say was that they would still need to be on the register - so their details could be leaked if there were a repeat of Datagate. And critics claim that being on the register is compulsory rather than voluntary.
Unbelievable. So airport employees, already checked & vetted, are to be forced to have a 'voluntary' card. Their details will be stored on a database that is now actually 3 databases which are linked but are totally safe & secure, unlike every other database in the history of the world. We needn’t worry about data getting lost by the government because the government will be providing a fail-safe system to sort things out once they’ve lost it.
Meanwhile, foreigners will have to have a card, though how we know which ones a re supposed to have one and which ones aren’t is unclear.
Students are to be 'offered' them. And if they turn down this kind offer?
We're then reduced to feeble inducements - 'it'll be easier to open a bank account'. Hmmm, £20 billion, increased danger of data loss, loss of civil liberties - so I can spend 15-20 minutes less of my life opening bank accounts.
Bargain!
Posted by: Ross | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 01:21 PM
Everybody in Spain has ID cards. Nobody complains about them. Why is there all this fuss over here?
Posted by: Gary | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 01:45 PM
Everyone in Russia has to have an ID card. I thought David Muggleband and his droids were automatically opposed to everything that happens in Russia?
Of course, it might be that the Spaniards aren't incompetent drongos? Maybe that's the difference?
Posted by: Neil McGowan | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 02:11 PM
way to go brits!
roll out!
Posted by: kim | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 02:13 PM
Everyone in South Africa has one - and loads of them complain! As do ehtnic minorities in France & Germany! Spain of course is free of terrorism, thanks to ID cards! O, hang on, there's ETA, and the Madrid bombers. How did that happen in an ID protected land? Are levels of ID fraud, benefit fraud etc lower in ID carrying countries? No? Now that is strange....
Posted by: Ross | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 02:38 PM
Doesn't it all depend on the framework in which ID cards are to be introduced and used? Germany for example has had ID cards since time immemorial but they only contain a photo, a name and a number, which theoretically links to the registration system, which also has the address. However, this is not too onerous as at the last check the register was found to be 30% adrift (i.e. people not living where the register said they did). If the police really want to see your ID card and you haven't got it with you, they have to give you a lift home to find it. Unsurprisingly I haven't even once been asked for my ID card in the last 35 years and I usually take a year or two to reregister when I move. Access to the register is very restricted, penalties for misuse of the tiny amount of information stored are heavy and have the full backing of a written constitution. There is not the slightest evidence that ID cards help combat crime but they do come in handy for opening bank accounts. Frankly, if we hadn't already got one, no one would bother to introduce such a system today.
The proposed UK system will prove no more useful but will cost the earth and, given the inability of UK law to restrain the executive, reduce Britain to an expensive, inefficient and arbitrary police state. So what else is new?
Posted by: Nick Strange | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 03:47 PM
Thank God these won't be allowed by the SNP.
The English people are too easily subjugated. Have a nice police state!
Posted by: Scott T | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 05:13 PM
I am a strong supporter of the ID card, and urge everyone on the earth to have one. But my concern is that this ID cards are rolled out without proper planning, as Ross says that though everyone in Germany has a ID card, the way it is maintained and used is not that useful. Also the question arises about the security of the database.
So I would say before rolling out the card the government must have a plan to link all the database, reduce redundancy such as creating one driver's licence database, one NI database etc etc. And must roll out a almost full proof and secure database that really works. A more detailed consultation with the interested parties and experts should be carried out with vigour.
Posted by: Mohammad Rahman | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 05:31 PM
"a almost full proof and secure database that really works."
Sorry, the simple fact is that there's no such thing. Wide access to the system, coupled with low pay rates and human greed guarantees that even a technically perfect system (which incidentally even the American military have not been able to achieve) will not be totally secure.
Posted by: David | Thursday, 06 March 2008 at 11:31 PM
In some instances an id card could have major benefits for our society. Yet it is most definate that the id card will have other uses that the Government are unwilling to publish. As Scot T above has said "Police state". I tend to agree.
Posted by: John Finningham | Thursday, 20 March 2008 at 07:18 PM