Home Affairs Select Committee backs ID cards
01 January 1991
Home Affairs Select Committee backs ID cards
artdoc August=1991
The introduction of voluntary identity cards as a "positive
enhancement of liberty" is the main proposal of the Home
Affairs Select Committee's report on "Practical Police Co-
operation in the European Community" published last month.
The report says it is "bullish" on the introduction of
identity cards as a way of making life easier if you want to
travel in the EC, or prove your identity to a bank or to the
police.
The Committee, which included Labour Mps Joe Ashton, Gerry
Bermingham and Keith Vaz, received little evidence in favour
of the scheme and ignores its own evidence from France and
Portugal that voluntary ID cards can quickly become compulsory
in practice. Black people and other ethnic minorities who
might be singled out by the police "for attention" should, the
report says, see the advantage of being able to prove their
identity. The police would be given no powers to demand the
production of the card, so "the concerns about oppressive
demands upon minorities would not arise". The proposal for ID
cards however immediately follows another recommendation to
increase police powers. They received evidence that the police
in Scotland have the power to detain someone (without arrest
or charge) to verify their name and address and say it should
be extended to England and Wales as well.
The report says the "voluntary" ID cards should be machine-
readable smart cards capable of holding other personal details
such as banks account numbers and medical records. But who is
to say the same card may not also include details of a person
subversive connections or that they are a suspected illegal
immigrant?
The Committee excluded the issues of immigrants, migrants and
asylum-seekers from its terms of reference which leads it to
totally underestimate the importance of the Schengen Agreement
and the Schengen Information System. The Agreement signed by
the Benelux countries, France and West Germany in June is seen
as the model for the rest of the EC as a means of law
enforcement, the exclusion of non-legal residents and
"undesirable aliens".
The report ignored the evidence which called for the meetings
of the Schengen countries, the TREVI meetings of Interior
Ministers, and the host of other working parties that have
been created to be brought within the framework of the
European Commission and European Parliament. Evidence from
Home Office officials described the "shuffling of chairs" when
in the same morning Interior Ministers of the 12 meet to
discuss immigration with EC officials, then "during the coffee
break" the chairs are moved and the same Ministers meet as
TREVI but without EC officials present(though they are
informed of developments).
The report is a reminder that the safeguarding of civil
liberties cannot be left to a quiescent parliament, let alone
to the judiciary.
August 1990