IDENTITY cards will be convenient and `good value for money', Home Office minister Meg Hillier said in Manchester.
She claimed that once the controversial cards are brought in they will become popular with the public.
She was making the case for the id card scheme as she met representatives from organisations including the police, council, and chamber of commerce, as well from the voluntary sector.
Ms Hillier faced questions in Manchester town hall on the need, cost and civil liberties implications of the scheme which will begin in November.
She said the cards were a `natural step' from passports and offered an `extra convenience factor'. She said: "I'm convinced people will really want it and it will be here to stay."
The minister also stressed that an independent commissioner would monitor the information the government held in the scheme.
Young people will be offered the cards in 2010 and the following year they will be offered to the rest of the population.
Ms Hillier said the government had no plans to make the cards compulsory for British citizens.
And the minister claimed that most of the £5bn cost of the scheme would be funded by the fee.
She said: "Compared to a passport at £72, I think the 10-year identity card is pretty good value for money."
What do you think about ID cards? Have your say on this story.
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Karney for head of GMPTA(formerly MC Spanner) (19/06/2008 at 06:46)
Can you name one thing he has done that shows it?
Yet another loss of liberty that we have to pay for. The money would be better spent on Roads and Public Transport.
DAVID, CHEETWOOD (19/06/2008 at 08:37)
you will LOVE id cards or else!
plus when did labour and good value for money ever appear in the same sentence??
Dave (19/06/2008 at 08:38)
If I could trust the Government with my data, I wouldn't have a problem. But the Government is so unsecure with our data, I would refuse to have one.
dessie, manchester (19/06/2008 at 08:39)
i got nowt to hide!!
MsD, Manchester (19/06/2008 at 08:40)
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 08:58)
Logic is always suspicious, granted, and currently in detention without charge, but this treatment of it by Meg Hillier is cruel and unusual.
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 09:08)
According to the Home Office, the increase is required to pay for the ID cards scheme. Some of that £72 fee you pay doesn't buy you a passport at all, it pays for everyone's future ID cards.
The Didsbury One (19/06/2008 at 09:09)
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 09:15)
If every GP surgery in the country has to be connected to the ID cards scheme so that we can all register for state healthcare, that will cost a fortune, we will have to pay for it, it is part of the cost of the scheme.
But little or none of that money will flow through the Home Office.
Which is why the best estimates are £20bn. The ID cards scheme will cost £20bn.
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 09:18)
Gordon Brown says the same thing, and so does Meg Hillier.
But they don't run banks.
Have you ever heard the Chief Executive of a retail bank say that a government-issued ID card would make it easier to open a bank account?
only nickname left (19/06/2008 at 09:20)
Occupation? Extremist.
Don't think so.
Trudy, Bolton (19/06/2008 at 09:21)
only nickname left (19/06/2008 at 09:23)
Funky Tuna (19/06/2008 at 09:27)
The current administration can’t even keep 'top military' secrets safe. What would happen if all your details were stored in one convenient place?
A passport you only need when you travel really, ID cards will mean you have to carry them at all times.
More state control measures for the honest people of the UK!
Anthony, Accrington,Lancashire (19/06/2008 at 09:28)
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 09:29)
Answer -- biometrics, particularly fingerprints. Your fingerprints prove that you are you.
That is true in the case of traditional fingerprinting technology, rolled prints, taken by a police expert, using ink. That is why traditional fingerprinting is admissible as evidence in court. It works.
But that is not the technology being proposed for ID cards. Instead, they're proposing to use flat print fingerprinting -- clean, quick, cheap, no expert required and, 20% of the time, it says that you are not you. That's why it's not admissible as evidence in court.
Using flat print fingerprinting, we could conveniently cut the nation's healthcare bill by 20%. That will be good value for money.
Remember what a public service you are performing when your GP reluctantly refuses to treat you.
PW, Manchester (19/06/2008 at 09:33)
The minister will grin for the photograph as she contemplates forcing more unwanted stuff on the population. What annoys me most is that working people will have to buy theirs, and again the workshy layabouts will get theirs free. I'm not talking about genuine long-term sick people either, before anyone gets indignant.
Another Nu Labour idea that nobody wants, but they insist upon. Roll on 2010 when we see the back of them.
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 09:53)
When?
When are they meant to protect us from crime and terrorism?
According to the Identity & Passport Service, ID cards will start to be issued to us UK nationals in 2012. The timetable will be geared to passport applications. Passports last for 10 years. So, by 2022, passport-holders will have ID cards. About 80% of us have a passport. Too little, too late.
2022 is 14 years away. Will criminals and terrorists be polite enough to wait until then?
Mark,Radcliffe. (19/06/2008 at 09:55)
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 10:01)
In Pakistan, they have NADRA -- the National Database Registration Authority.
IPS have issued 0 biometric ID cards so far.
By end-2005, NADRA had issued 64 million biometric ID cards to Pakistanis at home and abroad.
ID cards have brought peace and prosperity to the law-abiding Pakistan and surrounding area, as witness every newspaper every day.
How long will we have to wait for the same peace and prosperity in the law-abiding UK?
Grief Tourist, Tameside (19/06/2008 at 10:06)
suge, mancs (19/06/2008 at 10:21)
David Moss (19/06/2008 at 10:28)
80% of us already have a mobile phone and we voluntarily take our monile phone with us everywhere we go.
The location of our mobile phone can be determined at all times with variable accuracy, whether or not we are using it, whether we are in the UK or abroad.
Mobile phones therefore provide the police with the assistance they need.
The Home Office could have chosen a scheme that works, based on mobile phones. Or they could have chosen one that doesn't, based on smart cards.
Hamish Macbeth, Whitefield (19/06/2008 at 10:34)
Hamish Macbeth, Whitefield (19/06/2008 at 10:38)
Remind me how long Abu Hamza was allowed to preach hatred and received taxpayers money.
Why has Qatada got bail despite being wanted for terrorism offences in Jordan.
The Government should concentrate on deporting the known terrorists first.