Issue 147

ID card scheme causes widespread controversy

23rd October 2006

The government is pushing ahead to introduce its controversial identity card scheme, which ministers say is likely to cost £5.4 billion to set up and run for the next decade.

The Tories and Liberal Democrats have declared their opposition to the cards. The Lib Dems believe that the true cost of the scheme will be unpredictable. Nick Clegg, Lib Dem home affairs spokesmen said "it is difficult to believe anything the Government says about the cost of ID cards, given that in the past they have either tried to hide the costs or underestimated them."

The UK scheme is expected to be compulsory, and will be linked to a new identity register. This database will include details such as name, date of birth, nationality and immigration status address, as well as biometric details which will allow revolutionary fingerprint, iris and face recognition systems.

Civil liberty groups such as NO2ID are against the scheme as they say it could lead to the loss of privacy, freedom and civil rights for everyone. But supporters of the scheme argue that identity cards are necessary to prevent identity theft and to create a sense of community, aid anti-terrorism measures and reduce benefit fraud and abuse of public services.

Meanwhile the government are now using a new tactic to promote ID cards, claiming that they can be used as a way of tackling illegal immigration as well as illegal employment, two of the issues at the forefront of the political agenda. Successful introduction of the identity card scheme could even spell the end of the full population census, currently carried out every 10 years.

Kerrie Scholefield