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UK: ID cards - a few steps nearer

01 July 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.