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UK: ID card consultation ends:

01 January 2003

On 31 January 2003 the consultation period on the governments proposed introduction of identity cards drew to a close. Privacy International say responses to the consultation were "at least four-to-one against the Government's proposals". The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has said that he favours the introduction of a "simple smartcard" with a memory chip detailing personal details, a unique identification number and access to public services, but added that "members of the cabinet have different views on this". Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the Treasury are known to have strong reservations over the cost of the scheme, which has been estimated at between £1.3 - 3 billion, though the likelihood is that the public would foot the bill through a £15-20 individual charge for each ID card. The new Information Commissioner and head of the UK Data Protection office, Richard Thomas, also has serious reservations: "Identity theft is one of the arguments in favour [of ID Cards]. Well, in the United States social security cards which are de facto entitlement cards are forged in wholesale volumes and actually increase identity theft rather than reduce it". A second justification is social security fraud. The empirical evidence is that the vast bulk of social security fraud is caused by fraud about people's circumstances, not about their identity." Guardian 8.1.03, 16.1.03; Times 21.1.03