ID cards 'still on way'

Ian craig

January 17, 2006

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THE government is to press on with plans for identity cards despite another setback in the Lords.

The policy was in tatters after peers voted by a large majority to block it, but Home Office minister and Leigh MP Andy Burnham vowed that they would reverse the decision in the Commons.

ID cards face another rough ride in the Lords next week and Labour peers and MPs are concerned about the cost of the cards - estimated at anything between £30 and £500 - and the human rights implications.

Manchester peer and former Labour Treasury minister, Lord Barnett, said he did not oppose the principle, but was concerned about costs.

Greater cost

The London School of Economics has estimated that the scheme could cost anything from £10 billion to £19 billion - far greater than the cost predicted by the government.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Phillips said the Identity Cards Bill would bring surveillance of every citizen in the land over the age of 15, dealing with a range of highly-sensitive personal information.

The Lords voted by 237 to 156 to block the scheme until the National Audit Office and MPs vet the figures.

Mr Burnham said today that estimates that the joint biometric passport and ID cards could cost £500 each were "fantasy".

He insisted: "We have made it clear that we can afford to make it £30 for people to have a stand-alone ID card and that is a sound basis on which to take the scheme forward."

The row spread to the Commons when Home Secretary Charles Clarke faced calls from Labour MPs for the Cabinet to look again at the plans.

Are you for or against the ID card plans? Have your say.

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Colin Simpson, Cumbria (17/01/2006 at 14:48)

To many reports on the, badley misnamed, Identity Cards bill concentrate on the ID Card itself. The card is almost an irelavance, the main purpose of the legislation is the creation of the National Identity Register and its acompanying database. By way of this database the Civil Servants of the Home Office will maintain a dossier on every person in the country and keep a detailed record of every use of the card.
This represents a major change in the relationship between the people and the state since we will all become acountable to the state rather than the other way round as is now the case.
This sheme must be stopped now.

Colin Simpson
Cumbria

Colin W, Stockholm (17/01/2006 at 15:14)

People in the UK complain about nothing. I live and work in Sweden where ID cards are compulsory. I voluntarily got one from the Swedish authorities and never battered an eyelid. They are a brilliant idea as everything is managed properly. The British public need to wake and and realise how far behind the rest of Europe they really are

bernie, trafford (17/01/2006 at 15:45)

I am wholly against these cards on the cost basis alone
why should I pay for some layabout to get a free card through my income tax and then take money from my savings to pay for a card I do not need I have a passport this allows me to travel freely around the world. If France Belgium Netherlands and the rest of europe can produce their ID card system for 25.00 a throw how come phoney and his cronies need twenty times this much, I believe the figure of the London school of Economics more than a govt minister who is freeloading through life, will we be paying for ministers ID cards as well as their council tax and expenses. If the govt depts performed better and didnt waste so much money they could halve this country's expenditure overnight and free up money which could be spent on more police officers a pair of eyes do more good than an airport scanner reading these ID cards and if phoney's friend who sold the UK vaccine for flu is anything to go by the cards wont be much use either. How secure will the information collected be? Private companies are out there to make profit sell an address here a DOB there nice little earner.

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