From the BBC:

“Former Home Secretary David Blunkett says the government should scrap plans to introduce ID cards for all in favour of mandatory biometric passports.

Speaking at InfoSec 2009, a security conference held in London, the MP for Sheffield Brightside said biometric passports could do the job.

He said he had put the idea to the current Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

He mooted the idea of ID cards when Home Secretary in 2001, but has changed his position in the last few months.

Asked whether ID cards could be dropped, Mr Blunkett told the BBC: “I think it is possible to mandate biometric passports.”

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said:

“When even the father of ID cards spurns them, the idea is truly an abandoned orphan.

“Only the most profligate of governments would lavish billions on this programme in such a deep recession where hard choices are needed on public priorities.

“There is no face-saver with passports, which were becoming biometric in any case. It would be ridiculous to insist that people pay for new passports whether they need them or not.

“The Government should remember that the British state belongs to the British people and not the other way around.”

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

£140,000 of public money has been spent so far  trying to keep reviews of the Government’s plans for ID cards a secret.

The Office of Government Commerce has spent the money on a four-year legal battle to avoid releasing the relevant “Gateway reviews” (stage-by-stage assessments of Government projects) .

The Information Tribunal, which hears appeals against Freedom of Information rulings, ordered ministers last week to publish two reviews into the progress of the ID cards scheme within 28 days.

However, the OGC is not likely to do so readily, and costs could rise even higher, as Computer Weekly reports:

 “Its punctilious arguments for continued secrecy have the full backing of ministers. The OGC has so far:
 -Rejected a freedom of information request for the two gateway reviews to be published
- Rejected an appeal by the FOI applicant to publish the two reviews
- Appealed against a ruling of the Information Commissioner that the reviews be published
- Appealed against a ruling by the Information Tribunal that the reviews be published.

“The OGC instructed Jonathan Swift, one of the two most senior barristers who act for the government in civil law matters, to argue in the High Court for the reviews to be kept secret.

“But the OGC is likely to appeal the Tribunal’s decision, which means it can continue to keep the reviews secret.

“If the OGC were to lose any High Court appeal, it could take the case to the Law Lords. If it lost that too, ministers could veto to stop the reviews being published.

“The two gateway “zero” reviews in question are already more than five years old. They were assessments of the ID cards scheme in June 2003 and January 2004, and gave a view on the feasibility of the ID cards scheme long before the Identity Cards Bill received royal assent in March 2006.”

Chris Huhne, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesman, said:

“The government is increasingly realising that its ID card scheme is a laminated poll tax with all the same toxic ability to make it unpopular.

“Ministers would win more plaudits if they did not drag their feet on their legal obligations.”  (BBC)

 

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

The British Airline Pilots’ Association (BALPA) has rejected Government plans to use pilots as guinea pigs for its ID cards scheme, saying, “Promises that ID cards would be voluntary have been broken.”

In a submission to the Government’s consultation on ID cards, BALPA said,

“ID cards have absolutely no value as far as security is concerned… this is nothing but coercion…

“It is clear that the government’s staged introduction of biometric identity cards first to overseas students, then to migrant workers and then for aviation workers represents a way of picking off what is seen as easy or compliant targets.”

BALPA also asks,

“What happens when the first airport worker refuses to register for an ID card? Our understanding from the draft regulations is… that the individual will be out of a job. This could be an individual who has served his or her country as a Service pilot being told they are not now trusted. This is both unacceptable and demeaning and we will resist.”

BALPA sent the management of Manchester airport and London City airport a copy of their submission. These airports are the first two chosen by the Government for trials of ID cards on airside workers – however they have been warned that pilots will not co-operate.

Read more on this story in The Times.

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

A private sector group of technology experts has warned of the security risks of the Government’s ID card scheme.

The report, published today by the Information Assurance Advisory Council, says that people’s private data will inevitably be lost and that measures to deal with these losses are inadequate:

“Whilst the creation of a national identity infrastructure will undoubtedly help to address some existing risks with the way people gain access to personal electronic services today, it will also undoubtedly create other, new ways in which people can be harmed.

“It is incontestable that identity subjects could be harmed, in some cases seriously, by the types of accident, failure, mistake and security breach that could take place within a national identity management system.

“It is also incontestable that no system can be 100 per cent secure, and no system can be either 100 per cent reliable or 100 per cent failsafe.

“The UK Government has to accept that its citizens will be put at risk of harm from accidents and incidents arising within the operation of any national identity management system.”

Read the full story in the Evening Standard.

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

The Home Office has not included the Welsh language on ID cards because the words are considered too long to fit on the cards.

This is despite the Home Office saying that it “has adopted the principle that in the conduct of public business and the administration of justice in Wales, it will treat the English and Welsh languages on a basis of equality.”

Wales Online reports:

Despite Welsh being used on driving licences and passports, the language was not used on the design of ID cards, which are already being issued to foreign nationals.

Junior Home Office minister Meg Hillier told MPs yesterday: “It’s not as straightforward as it may seem. We will make a final decision in advance of the high-volume roll-out in 2011-12.

“One of the other challenges is the length of the Welsh language – you have difficulty just fitting in the words on a very small ID card. But we are sensitive to these issues.”

Of course, the sensitive (and sensible) thing to do would be to scrap the intrusive ID cards scheme altogether.

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

*That’s Welsh for “Home Office”

How many “soft releases” does the Government’s ID card scheme need?

It was introduced in November 2008 -  but “only” for foreign nationals who come to the UK under a visa, to work, study or marry.

Then this autumn, “only” airside workers at Manchester and London City airports were selected as the scheme’s next guinea pigs.

Not content with targeting people on the basis of nationality or occupation, Jacqui Smith has announced her latest “volunteers”: the City of Manchester.  Oh, and young people.

From The Guardian:

“The Home Office said it was trying to identify some parts of the country where people would be able to apply for ID cards on a voluntary basis from the end of this year.

“There are already plans to make them available to young people on a nationwide basis from 2010, before offering them to all adults over the following two years.

“But Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, also wants to establish “beacon areas” where all adults would be free to apply for one before the national roll-out. On a regional visit today, she said that Manchester was “in the running” to be one of these areas.”

Obviously the aim is for us all to have one, but with 50,000 ID cards planned to have been issued to foreign nationals by April, we’re way past the thin end of the wedge already…

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

A confidential Home Office document has been leaked to a campaigner against ID cards - the subject of which is… how to prevent leaks.

Phil Booth of the NO2ID campaign received the document, which appeared to outline measures to stop employees of the five companies bidding for work on the ID cards scheme from leaking information about the project.  It even seemed to suggest that police would not need a search warrant to enter the homes of employees.

The Times has the story:

“Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has suffered fresh embarrassment from a new Whitehall leak disclosing that ministers are seeking new powers to search the homes of staff working on ID cards.

An 11-page confidential Home Office document – which was sent to a campaigner against ID cards – suggests that the employees’ homes could be entered without the need for a police warrant.

The latest disclosure comes amid the continuing political furore over the police raid on the House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tory immigration spokesman accused of receiving leaked Home Office documents.

The measures outlined in the document appear to be designed to prevent the employees of five companies, all bidding for work on the ID cards scheme, from leaking damaging information about work on the national identity register.

This register is expected to contain the names, addresses and private information about tens of millions of Britons if it comes into operation as Labour plans in four years’ time.”

Fingerprints taken? Check. ID cards issued? Check. Scanners to actually read the cards… oops!

The Home Office have admitted that official bodies will not be able to read the first ID cards to be issued in Britain. Despite saying they would provide electronic readers, the government hasn’t – and has no plans to do so either!

ID cards were issued last week to foreign nationals including students and those granted a visa because they are married to a British Citizen – but the cards will be no more use than existing passports and visas.

(From the Observer)

From the Telegraph:

“The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), which represents most of the country’s commercial pilots, said the Government’s “early warning system should be flashing” over its opposition to plans to force aviation workers be the first Britons to carry ID cards.

“Jim McAuslan, Balpa’s general secretary, said his members resented being treated as guinea pigs and added: “It may come to an industrial dispute.

“We would want to avoid that. We would want the Government to think again about the whole scheme,” he told The Independent.

“The Government insists that the cards must be fast-tracked to airport staff due to the importance of high security in their workplaces. The Home Office is preparing to unveil a plan to make staff at Manchester and London City airports sign up for an ID card before they can apply for security accreditation necessary for workers at the sites. Under the plans, ID cards will be issued to staff from next autumn.

“Mr McAuslan said: “The Government has said previously that ID cards will be voluntary, but the indications are that if you choose not to have a card, you will not get an airside pass.”

The Independent quotes Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary Chris Huhne:

“It is no surprise that pilots are up in arms since they are one of the few groups selected as guinea pigs for this benighted experiment.”

You can sign the Liberal Democrats’ petition against ID cards here.

In a new twist on the National Lottery, Jacqui Smith announced earlier this month that the Home Office would be approaching outlets such as supermarkets and Post Offices to help issue ID Cards.

Guy Herbert, from No2ID said: “It sounds like a mad fantasy of setting up something like a Photo-Me kiosk to collect fingerprints. Leaving aside the technical and security issues, both would be risky from the point of view of the reputation of the organisations involved, and financially terrifying.”

Today, znet.co.uk reports that the public have rejected such a scheme:

“Only 25 percent of more than 2,000 people questioned for the government’s Central Office of Information would consider having their fingerprints, photo and signature recorded for an ID card in a supermarket, according to research commissioned by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS). This increased to just 26 percent for a petrol station, 28 percent for a department store and 29 percent for a local shop.”

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Tom Brake said:

“Signing up for an ID card isn’t like buying a lottery ticket. It’s clear ministers are desperate to find any means to get people to sign up for an ID card. This is just their latest half-baked attempt.”

Jacqui Smith wants to make signing up for an ID card as convenient as buying a scratchcard - but the odds of the Government “redistributing” your private information must be significantly better than winning the jackpot!