ID cards won't prevent terrorist attacks; they won't prevent illegal immigration; they won't prevent identity fraud and they will cost each person £93.
ID cards are an invasion of personal privacy - would you trust this government with your personal data after they lost details of 25 million Child Benefit claimants?
You will need to collect your ID card in person - if you live in the South of Scotland, or the Highlands this could mean a return trip of 200 miles.
How will ID cards affect us?
1. Every UK Citizen over the age of 16 will have to have one - everyone over 16 in all UK areas.
2. Everyone will have to travel to a biometric scan centre to have their biometrics taken. There are 11 centres planned in Scotland: Aberdeen, Dumfries, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Kilmarnock, Oban, Selkirk, Stirling and Wick. This could result in people travelling hundreds of miles at great cost to visit their nearest biometric centre, this is on top of the £93 cost of the ID card itself.
For example:
|
Processing Centre
|
Travelling From
|
Round Trip Mileage
|
Round Trip Travel Time
|
|
Oban
|
Campbeltown
|
173.8
|
4hrs 38mins
|
|
Selkirk
|
Eyemouth
|
93.8
|
2hrs 50mins
|
|
Kilmarnock
|
Girvan
|
69
|
1hr 38mins
|
|
Dumfries
|
Sandhead
|
142.8
|
3hrs 34mins
|
|
Stirling
|
Killin
|
74
|
1hr 44mins
|
|
Inverness
|
Fort William
|
129.6
|
2hrs 52mins
|
|
Aberdeen
|
Ballater
|
83.2
|
2hrs 44mins
|
|
Dundee
|
Pitlochry
|
102.8
|
2hrs 28mins
|
|
Wick
|
Shetland
|
388.4
|
2days 7hrs 56mins
|
(Source: The AA)
3. Every time you move, change details, get married or have children you will have to inform the Government’s data base. Failure to do so could incur fines of up to £1,000.
4. Every time there is a mistake on the system you will have to prove it wrong not the other way round.
5. You will not be able to access public services if you have left the card at home.
6. Every time you visit the doctor, council or police the system will record your visit.
7. The Government will be able to know where you have been and who you have seen – Big Brother will be watching.
Background
Under current Government plans, everyone over the age of 16 applying for a passport will have their details – including fingerprints, eye or facial scans – added to a National Identity register from 2008.
From 2008 all foreign nationals will have to apply for biometric residence permits or visas with their details entered onto the national identity database.
The first identity cards will be issued to British citizens in 2009, and from 2010 the Identity and Passport Service will issue ID cards alongside British passports.
For two years (until 1st January 2010), people will be able to opt out of having an ID card when they receive their passport but their details will still be entered onto the National Identity Register. But from 2010 anyone renewing or getting a passport will be issued with an ID card and it is expected that they will eventually become compulsory for all citizens 16 years and over.
Facts
ID cards won’t work
• ID cards won't prevent terrorist attacks: The former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, has admitted that ID cards would not have prevented the 7 July 2005 bombings in London, saying: 'I doubt if it would have made a difference'. In Spain, ID cards are compulsory, but they did not stop the Madrid bombings in March 2004.
• ID cards won't prevent illegal immigration: Foreign visitors will not have to have an ID card, unless they plan to stay in the UK for more than three months.
• ID cards won't prevent identity fraud: Microsoft's National Technology Officer, Jerry Fishenden, has said that introducing ID cards could make identity fraud worse, warning that it could 'trigger massive identity fraud on a scale on a scale beyond anything we have seen before'.
• ID cards won't prevent human trafficking: ID cards are no substitute for a border police force and proper checks on people entering and leaving the country. In 1998, the Government abolished border controls, but its replacement, a computer-based e-borders scheme will not be fully installed until 2014.
ID cards are a waste of money
• ID cards will cost each person £93: According to Government estimates, you will pay at least £93 for a combined ID card and passport package but, given this Government's appalling record of implementing IT projects, this figure is likely to go up. Also, if your ID card is stolen, or your lose it, you'll have to pay £30 for a replacement. If you change your name when you get married, you'll have to pay for a new ID card. If one of your relatives dies and you forget to return their ID card, you could be fined £1,000.
• ID cards scheme will cost up to £20 billion in total: While the Government claims that the scheme will cost £5.4 billion of taxpayers' money, the independent London School of Economics estimates it will cost up to £20 billion.
• ID cards could be another Government disaster: This Government has a terrible record of large scale IT disasters. For example, the botched introduction of the new Child Support Agency computer system led to a backlog of 250,000 cases; clerical errors and problems with the tax credits computer system led to millions of incorrect payments; and an audit of the Police National Computer by the Met Police found that 86 per cent of records were inaccurate.
ID cards are an invasion of privacy
• ID cards give the State too much personal data in one place: Your ID card could hold almost 30 separate pieces of personal information on you, including your name, date and place of birth, gender, previous addresses, photograph, signature, fingerprints and other biometric details. All this information will also be stored on a massive Home Office ID cards database, called the National Identity Register.
• ID cards mean intrusive interviews and fingerprinting: From 2009, unless you opt out, when you renew your passport you will have to visit a Government 'interview centre' and give the Government your fingerprints in order to get an ID card.
Database Security Breaches
• The agency responsible for running the ID cards scheme has had its security breached four times already. In the last nine years, there have been four confirmed breaches of the IPS Passport Application System (PASS) and one confirmed breach of a HMPS legacy database containing life sentences management data (Hansard, 7.11.06, col. 1351WA).
• In November 2007 the Government saw its HM Revenue and Customs department lose 25 million records containing the names, addresses and dates of birth of every child in the country along with the bank account details and national insurance numbers of 10 million parents, guardians and carers.