The £5.6 billion compulsory ID card scheme was unsuccessfully touted by the Government as a solution to identity theft, benefit fraud, crime, and terrorism, but is now being rolled out gradually to targeted groups through new laws including the UK Borders Act 2007.

Shami Chakrabarti, Director for Liberty said:

“Yet another re-launch of the ID scheme looks suspiciously like a new sales pitch for the same bad product. The message plays on fears of immigration, concerns about airport security and sentimentality about proud 18 year-olds’ buying their first beer! But foreigners already require passports and visas to come into the country and there is no reason whatsoever why workplace entry details need to be put on a central national database. ID cards remain disastrous for our purses, privacy and race relations. A slow soft sell won’t change this thoroughly bad idea.”

Liberty noted that the Government’s plan to require all non-EU nationals to carry ID cards later this year was actually introduced last year when the UK Borders Act 2007 became law.

Making ID cards mandatory for workers in high-risk areas such as airports is reasonable but Liberty expressed surprise that adequate security measures may not already be in place. Further, the definition of “high-risk” workers is subjective and could soon include other groups such as police officers, government officials and even teachers. Liberty believes there is no need to risk placing the details of these individuals on one national database.

Finally, encouraging students to carry ID cards appears to be targeting the public’s sentimentality about making life easier for young people, when in fact this could be targeting that generation to keep them on the national identity register database for life.

Liberty also expressed concern about the Government’s ability to safeguard individual’s intimate details on the National Identity Register after Government departments last year lost millions of people’s personal details, including those of 25 million child benefit claimants. A YouGov poll commissioned by the human rights group in September 2007 found that only 17 percent of Britons trust the authorities to keep their personal details completely confidential while 57 percent believe the UK has become a ‘surveillance society.’


Contact: Liberty press office on 020 7378 3656 or 07973 831 128

Notes to Editors


Liberty’s principle concerns about the ID cards and the National ID Register include:
 
- 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:

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

- 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.