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Queen speech pave way for id cards { November 7 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1079674,00.htmlhttp://politics.guardian.co.uk/homeaffairs/story/0,11026,1079674,00.html
Queen's speech to pave way for ID cards
Final decision on compulsory scheme could be put off for years
Patrick Wintour, chief political correspondent
Friday November 7, 2003
The Guardian
The cabinet yesterday agreed to table a draft bill on identity cards in the Queen's speech and allow the Home Office to start technical preparations for a compulsory national scheme.
However, in three to five years the cabinet will probably look again into whether to go ahead with a compulsory scheme. The home secretary, David Blunkett, will tell parliament next week that a compulsory scheme will require its further endorsement at the time. The Home Office hopes the draft bill will become law before the election.
Civil liberty groups described the delay as a humiliation for Mr Blunkett. The decision followed a bruising cabinet committee meeting on Wednesday and further conversations overnight and in the morning ahead of yesterday's cabinet meeting.
Mr Blunkett appeared happy with the outcome, insisting he had never been seeking immediate implementation of a scheme covering all 60 million Britons. In the medium term, work on producing a biometric passport and an EU driving licence will be intensified. The draft bill will also require foreign nationals resident in Britain for more than three months, and less than five years, to buy a biometric card.
Biometrics are intended to allow foolproof identification though fingerprint, iris, and face recognition.
In a statement designed to paper over cabinet cracks, the prime minister's spokesman said ministers had "in principle" agreed there were "major benefits" to ID cards.
But the spokesman added: "In practice, given the size and complexity of the scheme, a number of issues will need to be resolved. We intend to proceed by incremental steps to build a base for a compulsory national ID card scheme with a final decision later, when the conditions for moving to a compulsory card are met.
"We will legislate to enable the scheme to be introduced and plan on the basis that all the practical problems can be overcome, but we will reserve the final decision on a move to compulsion until later this decade."
The issue for government will be when to decide a critical mass of Britons have some form of working biometric identification through a passport or driving licence, so paving the way to a compulsory scheme in which Britons will not be given access to doctors' surgeries or other state benefits unless they have a general biometric card. Ministers expect as many as 80% of Britons will hold a biometric passport or driving licence in the second half of the decade.
Ministers had been at odds over the proposals for nearly a year over the technical and political dangers. A compulsory card could cost as much as £40, but will be offered at a reduced rate to pensioners and students. The new EU driving licence will start soon, with a new EU passport card starting in 2005.
Huge technical problems remain with many ministers pointing out that the government has yet to introduce any large-scale computer-based scheme with success. They estimate that even when the scheme is introduced and has settled down as many as 40,000 ID cards would need to be renewed each day, either due to loss or renewal.
Mr Blunkett said: "The prime minister and I have convinced our colleagues that we will need biometric identifiers.
"That can only be done by phasing it incrementally because you could not possibly in anyone's dreams have 60 million people suddenly brought on to a scheme."
He argued the vast majority of the costs on ID cards would in any case be spent in introducing updated passports and driving licences.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights organisation Liberty, said: "To delay taking a decision until later in the decade, when the composition of the cabinet will almost certainly be markedly different, is clearly a face-saving formula to disguise the fact Mr Blunkett has lost the argument".
Five schemes on the cards
Driving licences
About one third of Britain's 38 million licensed drivers already have EU-standard photocard licences which means the Driver Vehicle and Licensing Agency holds digital photographs of 13 million people. The remaining paper licences are being replaced as people change address or other details. The DVLA will start issuing a smartcard driving licence "within two to three years" containing secure electronic fingerprints. The police's new-generation road surveillance cameras are being used to operate an automatic number plate recognition system to track vehicle movements across Britain.
Passports and visas
44 million people currently hold a passport. Digitised photographs have been printed on all passports issued since 1998, so far amounting to 12 million passports. New passport "books" issued from 2005 will include "biometric data" including a facial image. A simpler smartcard, including biometric data, will be available to all from 2006 for travel around Europe only. A pilot scheme for all UK visas using "finger scan biometrics" is under way involving visitors from Sri Lanka.
DNA database
The police DNA database, which was first set up in 1995, now contains more than two million genetic "profiles" and is growing rapidly.
The British DNA database was the first in the world and is the largest. Civil liberties campaigners have claimed the government is intent on creating a "national database by stealth".
Citizens' information register
The government proposes a "once-only capture" of the personal details held on public sector databases on British citizens, including national insurance, tax, health, and electoral records. It is designed to "enable government departments and agencies to have easier access to more accurate core information on the citizens they deal with". Ministers are already discussing how this will act as the common population database for an identity card scheme with "a unique identifier" assigned to all UK residents.
Children's register
All 11 million children in England are to be given a unique identifying number. The electronic personal file will include name, address, date of birth, school and GP. The files of children who are known to be "at risk" will carry a flag.
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