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ID cards - a few steps nearer

01 January 1991

ID cards - a few steps nearer
artdoc August=1991

The introduction of `voluntary' identity cards has moved nearer
with the Home Secretary's proposal that banks and building
societies should introduce a common photocard bearing the owner's
signature and laser-engraved digitised photograph.
The proposal comes out of a working group comprised of
representatives of the police, banks, building societies and Home
Office officials as a means of combatting money-laundering and
the opening of accounts in false names (see Statewatch, no 1).
This comes on top of the decision that in future driving
licences will carry photographs. The Department of Transport
argues that the loss of a driving licence causes difficulties for
owners and the `absence of a photograph may make it difficult for
the police when they are trying to establish a driver's
identity.' The government's main objection to the introduction
of `voluntary' ID cards is not one of principle but of the high
costs of introducing them and the police's reluctance to
administer such a system. The encouragement of `voluntary' ID
cards by the government was confirmed in a recent letter from the
Home Office to the Association of Metropolitan Authorities Police
Committee. It said that although there might be a significant
number of people who would object to compulsory cards on `civil
liberties grounds':

It is by no means apparent, however, that a similar objection
can properly be made to a voluntary system. The objection would
depend for its validity on the hypothesis that a voluntary card
must inevitably develop into a compulsory one, which seems
questionable.

Guardian, 20.6.91; Department of Transport press release,
25.3.91; Home Office letter to the AMA, dated 30.4.91.

Statewatch no 3 July/August 1991