The Identity Cards Bill has been reintroduced in the House of Commons.
A secure compulsory national identity cards scheme would protect people’s identities and help the UK tackle illegal immigration, organised crime and abuse of free public services, Home Office Minister Tony McNulty told the Commons.
Opponents such as the Liberal Democrats however doubt that ID cards will stop ID theft, particularly over the internet and telephone. Responding to the publication of the Identity Cards Bill, Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten MP, said: "If there was ever any doubt that the costs of this scheme were going to spiral out of control, the new figures should put paid to them. £93 is a ludicrous amount of money to ask people to pay, especially when you consider the combined cost for a family with children over the age of 16. Support for these plans will drop off very quickly when people realise the costs involved. The failure rates in the biometrics pilot are astonishing. The Government is spending our money on a half-baked scheme, based on half-baked technology."
The scheme, to be phased in over a number of years, would link basic personal information, such as name and address, to secure biometrics – a computer scan of a person’s iris, face or fingerprints. From 2008, applicants for a new passport would also receive an identity card.
Mr McNulty said: “A secure national identity cards scheme would protect everyone’s identity and help prepare the UK for the challenges of the 21st century. Across the world there is a drive to increase the security of identity documents, to safeguard borders and reduce threats from overseas. The plans set out today will ensure the UKis at the forefront of that drive and making the most of the benefits for our citizens. Our identities are incredibly valuable to us and too easily stolen. ID fraud is a growing crime which can ruin lives and underpin illegal activities from people-trafficking to credit card fraud, from abuse of our healthcare and benefits systems to terrorism. A secure compulsory national identity cards scheme will help tackle illegal immigration, organised crime, ID fraud, terrorism and will benefit all UK citizens.”
The Bill covers the whole of the UK and:
Establishes the National Identity Register.
Provides powers to issue identity cards.
Ensures checks can be made against other databases to confirm an applicant’s identity and guard against fraud.
Sets out what information would be held and what safeguards would be put in place.
Enables public and private sector organisations to verify a person’s identity by checking against the National Identity Register, with the person’s consent, to validate their identity before providing services.
Creates new criminal offences on the possession of false identity documents, including genuine documents that have been improperly obtained or relate to someone else.
Includes enabling powers so that in the future access to specified public services could be linked to the production of a valid identity card.
Provides a power at a future date for it to become compulsory to register and be issued with a card, including penalties against failure to register.
It would not be compulsory to carry a card and there would be no new powers for police to demand to see a card. However, this would be a universal scheme for everyone legally resident in the UK and it will be compulsory to register on the scheme, the Government adds.
The Home Office also published findings of the UK Passport Service biometrics enrolment trial. The trial gave more than 10,000 people across the country the opportunity to experience face, fingerprint and iris enrolment, sought their views on the experience, and surveyed their attitudes towards the use of biometrics. This was the first time such a large-scale trial involving all three biometrics has been carried out in the UK.
