Commenting on growing problems for the Government’s controversial ID Cards Bill, Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty, said:

“A cost of billions of pounds would be bad enough if the Prime Minister's white elephant weren't quite so dangerous.

When you add this to the huge social cost for race relations and traditional freedoms, you have an extremely rogue beast- born of political machismo rather than concern for Britain's safety.”

The LSE Identity Project report today underlined many of the fears about this ID card scheme and the national identity register. It comes in the wake of opposition being expressed by:

· The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties in Parliament, both of whom will vote against the Bill.

· Trade unionists; Unison- Britain’s largest union- joined the TGWU and GMB in urging the Government to drop the bill.

· The Muslim Council of Britain, the largest umbrella group of Muslim organisations in Britain.

Liberty Press Office on 020 7378 3656 or 07973 831 128



Notes to Editors

Our principle concerns

They will fundamentally change the relationship between individual and state.

They will have a detrimental impact on race relations and will adversely affect vulnerable groups in society.

They will intrude on privacy as the amount of information held on the database and the uses made of that information will increase dramatically.

The Government’s poor record on IT projects makes this a huge financial risk.
We do not accept that ID cards will have any particular benefit

Arguments that they will protect the UK from terrorist attack are unconvincing. The men responsible for the 9/11 and Madrid terrorist attacks had valid identification.

They will not help fight crime but will be counterproductive, as they will deflect financial and policing resources away from crime prevention and detection.

They will have minimal impact on benefit fraud, as this is usually about financial circumstances rather than identity.

Most identity fraud takes place remotely, online, over the phone or using false ‘seed’ documents (driving licences, passports and so on). Identity cards will not address this.

They will have no impact on illegal immigration as asylum seekers have been required to carry ID cards since 2000.

The Identity Cards Bill is flawed:

Too much detail is retained for regulation.

‘Safeguards’ protecting against the need to carry cards fall away when the cards become compulsory.

Criminal and civil penalties are excessive.

There is no auditing process to ensure information is accurate.

Information sharing powers are too broad.

The Identity Card Commissioner has insufficient power.