According to the consultation paper, the population’s data will be held in a national database, and everyone will be issued with an “entitlement card” required for access to social security benefits, education and health services. The aim of the scheme is to improve provision of public services, and to tackle illegal immigration and identity fraud.
The entitlement card scheme, characterised by the paper as a “high quality, common population register”, would contain personal data such as employment status, signature and nationality. If the ID cards take the form of sophisticated smartcards, one of the options put forward, they would also contain biometric information such as digitised photographs, fingerprints and iris imprints. Each holder will be given a unique personal number.
The consultation paper points out that the cards would allow the government to link information on individuals, and recognises that, if the scheme is not secure, it would become a new source of identity fraud.
The proposed scheme, and particularly the plans for smartcards, have raised privacy fears. According to the group Privacy International, the plans are part of a broader objective outlined in the Cabinet Office report “Privacy & Data Sharing” to create a new administrative basis for the linkage of government databases and information systems.
The group also claims that the ID cards will have no effect on the reduction of crime or fraud, but introduce additional problems of “discrimination, criminal false identity and administrative chaos."
The Home Secretary David Blunkett said that he wants a national debate so that the British people will decide on the issue.
He also insisted that the scheme would not be a compulsory measure because it does not give the police any new power, and individuals would not be required to carry the cards at all times. Finally, he added that personal data would only be transferred to other government agencies, for specific purposes and with the consent of the individual.
Mr Blunkett said:
“Crucially the entitlement card could help us tackle illegal working, which undermines the minimum wage and the rights and conditions of the lowest paid. Any scheme eventually approved would not entail police officers or other officials stopping people in the street to demand their card.”
See: The entitlement card and identity fraud consultation document is available as a 145-page PDF.