The text of the Identity Documents Bill text has been published online:
Repeal of Identity Cards Act 2006
1 Repeal of Identity Cards Act 2006
(1) The Identity Cards Act 2006 is repealed.
(2) But--
(a) sections 25 and 26 of that Act (possession of false identity documents etc), and
(b) section 38 of that Act (verifying information provided with passport applications etc),
are re-enacted (with consequential amendments) by this Act.
Excellent, the sooner the better - realistically some time before the end of July, when Parliament takes a long summer recess.
3 Destruction of information recorded in National Identity Register
The Secretary of State must ensure that all the information recorded in the
National Identity Register is destroyed before the end of the period of two
months beginning with the day on which this Act is passed.
Excellent, however this needs to be strengthened to include all the copies of this data which have already been shared with police and intelligence agencies in the UK and abroad.
What is there to prevent copies of such National Identity Register data being retained by individual sub-contractors or consultants etc ?
What is there to prevent such NIR data from being lost or stolen via email, CD/DVD or USB memory device or mobile phone or portable computer etc. like has happened so often in the recent past ?
There should be criminal penalties for anyone who retains copies of some or all of the National Identity Register databases, both the "biographical" 52 categories of Registrable Facts and the separate created Biometric (fingerprint) database.
The financial data e.g. bank account or credit card details etc. which the few thousand people who were foolish enough to pay for their Identity Cards must also be destroyed or anonymised.
The fingerprint biometric data must not be shared, copied or sold to other countries or private sector companies.
N.B. there is no explicit mention of biometrics in this Bill - is this a deliberate loophole which the control freaks will try to exploit ?
There is only
8 Meaning of "personal information"
(1) For the purposes of sections 4 and 5 "personal information", in relation to an individual ("A"), means--
[...](e) external characteristics of A that are capable of being used for identifying A,
This section only applies to the ongoing re-legislation applicable to Passports and, controversially to Driving Licences.
Driving Licences should not be used as general Identity Documents, they should only be allowed to be used for Driving / Motoring reasons.
The Labour Government did not dare to get around to making Driving Licences into Designated Documents under the identity Cards Act 2006, but the Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition may be bamboozled into doing so with this Identity Documents Bill.
The Home Office cannot be trusted not to abuse Statutory Instruments, which cannot be amended, only accepted in full or rejected.
This Bill would grant the current or future Home Secretaries, the power to amend, simply by Order
7 (6)
The Secretary of State may by order amend the definition of "identity
document".
and also
10 Verifying information provided with passport applications etc
(1) The Secretary of State may require a person within subsection (4) to provide the
Secretary of State with specified relevant information by a specified date if the
Secretary of State considers that the person may have that information.[...]
(4) The persons referred to in subsection (1) are--
(a) a Minister of the Crown,
(b) a government department,
(c) a Northern Ireland department,
(d) the Welsh Ministers,
(e) the Registrar General for England and Wales,
(f) the Registrar General of Births, Deaths and Marriages for Scotland,
(g) the Registrar General of Births and Deaths in Northern Ireland,
(h) a qualifying credit reference agency, and(i) any other person specified for the purposes of this section by an order made by the Secretary of State.
Note that no law enforcement or intelligence agencies or executive agencies like the UK Borders Agency are specifically mentioned in this list.
The judicial system, including Courts and Prisons are not mentioned in this list.
The Armed Forces i.e Royal Navy, Royal Air Force, the Army etc. are not specifically mentioned in this list either..
Note also that the list of items (a) to (h) cannot be amended or removed by Order, only those additional "Persons" added by Statutory Instrument / Order.
Each of the ""Persons" should be explicitly named in the text of this Bill and any amendments should require full debate and scrutiny through Primary Legislation.
Where are the criminal sanctions to punish petty bureaucrats at the Identity and Passport Service, who seek to abuse this power to demand personal information from the list of "Persons" ?
The Data Protection Act does not apply, since it would be trumped by this Identity Documents Act 2010 if it is passed as it stands.
Abolishing ID cards is expensive & interferes with people's liberties
Ask anyone from most European countries who have been travelling on ID cards for years, and they will tell you that it is madness that Britain wants to get rid of them. This is like introducing the debit card as a replacement for the cheque book then banning it because it takes 10 years for people to get used to the idea and people come up with paranoid ideas about the State monitoring you through the debit cards. News flash. Passports are the same thing as ID cards, they store your details on a database. They are exactly the same except they are bigger.
As someone who travels frequently and who has purchased an ID card, the government is infringing on my liberties by taking away this convenience. I don’t have to remember to pack it unlike a passport and it is very small and convenient. What is more scrapping ID cards is very expensive because the billions spent will have to be spent again once the country comes to it’s senses and the programme is rerun.
8 reasons not to abolish ID cards:
1. National ID cards can be used as a passport to travel in the European Union and a future iteration of the card could be a ‘Passport card’ which could be used to travel the world. A passport in your wallet is a convenience for the people of Britain.
2. A National ID card or ‘Passport card’ can act as a backup to a passport, should you lose one of the documents.
3. Almost every other European country issues it’s citizens with a national ID card and most people are happy to have the convenience of such a card.
4. It has been argued that the ID cards are intrusive because they mean that personal data is stored on a database and they contain biometric information. Passports, bank accounts, tax records etc. all mean that personal data is stored in a database so why are ID cards special in this regard. It would be perfectly possibly to remove the biometric aspects of the card if this offends certain people and still retail a National ID card or ‘Passport card’.
5. The government argues that it is scrapping ID cards because of the cost. Billion have already been spent on the programme. If this is programme is scrapped it is likely that in subsequent years the country will adopt the same type of cards as other European countries, and that the public will realise the benefits of a ‘Passport card’ and that such cards will be reinstated. This will result in the billions of pounds of your and my money spend on the project costs having to be spent again on a new programme.
6. If the government feels that ID cards are too European Union and it wants to take a Euro-Sceptic position, it could introduce a ‘British ID card for Britain’ with no EU logos. The point is not the position with regards to the EU.
7. ID cards make it easier for the government to fight terrorism, illegal immigration, benefit fraud and unauthorised use of the NHS.
8. The move to scrap ID cards is purely political and it is not based on sound planning or common sense.
@ Anonymous User - where have you been for the last 8 years ?
That it utter NuLabour Orwellian doublethink and newspeak
The National Identity Scheme is unlike any of the European Union ID cards schemes.
Lots of people in the EU only grudgingly accept the imposition of ID cards on them.
This is a false analogy with "ID Cards".
Are you seriously pretending that debit cards are somehow not monitored, along with credit cards and bank accounts, for money laundering, tax evasion, benefits fraud and a host of other reasons by police, intelligence agencies (in the UK and overseas) and by a vast array of petty bureaucrats ?
There are plenty of court cases which show that exactly this information is being monitored and used as evidence.
No !
In other countries perhaps, but the Labour government control freaks made the UK National Identity Scheme much more intrusive and even more of a security risk.
The need to provide an address for a 10 year validity Passport, is primarily so that the document can be delivered to you.
There is no legal requirement for a Passport holder to update the address details, of all of their residences, even temporary ones, even holiday homes in the UK or overseas, under the threat of a £1000 fine per offence..
There are 40 extra pieces of information which that ID Card scheme demands of you , over and above what is needed for a Passport.
You are in a very tiny minority then.
Your convenience versus my liberty ? Not a strong argument.
Did you not notice all the other infringements on your liberty which the Labour government inflicted on you,, which the current Conservative / Liberal Democrat government have promised to repeal, but have not yet done so ?
You are arguing for a credit card sized passport card, which has nothing to do with a National Identity Card which was planned to be forced on the 30% of the population who do not need or want a passport.
Not as expensive as continuing to waste billions on the flawed scheme which is to be scrapped.
The mishandling of this project has set back the prospects for a sensible , voluntary government backed really voluntary ID card scheme which could be used for online identification (unlike the NIS) by many years.
That has got nothing to do with ID Cards.
A credit card plastic passport has been discussed internationally for many years, and could be introduced without any National Identity Scheme at all.
See above.
Two valuable and difficult to replace in hurry documents means that even more of them will be lost or stolen.
Why not just make replacement passports cost only, say £10 ?
None of them have a compulsory centralised national identity register database including biometric details.
Because you have no consumer choice.
If one bank abuses your personal data , it will go out of business as customers move to their rivals. This does not happen with a compulsory government monopoly.
That sensible choice was deliberately ruled out under the National Identity Scheme,
Thankfully the scheme is being scrapped before it has wasted a billion pounds.
Labour did waste £292 million on it:
Identity Cards
Home Department
Written answers and statements, 21 June 2010
Damian Green (Minister of State (Immigration), Home Office; Ashford, Conservative)
Between 2003 and March 2006, the Home Office spent a total of £41 million developing the policy, legislation and business case for the introduction of identity cards.
Responsibility for identity cards was transferred to the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) on its establishment in April 2006. Between then and March 2010, IPS spent a total of £251 million on projects to establish identity cards, second biometric passports and other related programmes.
A new format of passport is not the same as a National Identity Scheme see above.
Even David Blunkett is a bit shame faced about those particular Labour lies.
Remember that the soon to be scrapped National Identity Scheme did not make it mandatory to carry an ID Card, or even apply for an ID Card for 3 months, so how could any such spurious claims ever actually have worked in practice ?
The Labour National Identity Scheme was also "purely political" and "not based on sound planning or common sense."