ID CARDS ILLCONCEIVED AND IMPRACTICAL

In an article written for the Western Daily Press, Don sets out his grave concerns about the proposals for compulsory ID cards.

Compulsory National Identity cards will be too expensive, a threat to civil liberties and unlikely to achieve what the government claims. Despite the reservations of some of his government colleagues, David Blunkett seems determined to press ahead with a scheme that’s one step too far.

The costs will be huge. The current government estimate is three billion pounds over 10 years from taxpayers plus the cost we’ll have to pay, about £35, for each card. I expect it will end up being much more. If the government really wants to make an impact on crime, terrorism and illegal immigration the money would be far better spent on more police and on more intelligence officers for MI5 and the new Serious Organised Crime Agency.

I’m not convinced the system will work. The ID cards scheme would be the most ambitious and most expensive public sector IT project ever undertaken. Yet the government’s track record of large-scale IT projects hardly inspires confidence. New systems at the Post Office, Passport Office, Probation Service, Police Service, Courts Service and Child Support Agency have all run massively over budget.

In order to make the ID card system work, there will be a new national database of everyone in the UK. But thousands of people in my constituency alone change their address each year. So maintaining a permanently up-to-date and accurate database seems extremely unlikely. Errors will quickly mount up leading to some people’s cards being rejected and access to services being denied. Centralising the many existing methods of proving identity sounds like a good idea, but in practice breakdowns in the system will have serious consequences for both convenience and security. And a single, centralised system is an obvious target for an internet attack which could well paralyse the UK economy.

The Home Office wants to make it compulsory for people to present their card when applying for a job in the UK. This, they claim, will prevent illegal working. But employers in industries with current high levels of illegal labour are already required to check identity documents. The problem is that the Home Office doesn’t inspect them to make sure they are following the rules. There were only 2 prosecutions for employing illegal workers in 2002. The fact that illegal immigrants will not be able to get ID cards will not change anything as long as there are unscrupulous employers and lax Home Office enforcement.

I also question how it will prevent benefit fraud since the bulk of this involves claimants misrepresenting their circumstances rather then their identity. And even on identity, the government is claiming that their proposed ID cards cannot be forged. History suggests they will be proved wrong.

The claim that it will help police to identify the people they arrest is also completely flawed in that the police generally do not have a problem in doing this- the problem is in catching the criminals in the first place, and with the exception of identity fraud, I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that ID cards will reduce crime.

Certainly ID cards would not present an obstacle to most determined terrorists. The terrorists who attacked New York on September 11th 2001 and Madrid on March 11th 2004 all carried valid identity cards. Knowing someone’s identity does not necessarily help you to predict how they are going to behave.

Quite frankly, David Blunkett’s ID cards are ill-conceived, impractical and will do nothing to provide the panacea for terrorism, and crime that they’re supposed to. I will do all I can to oppose their introduction.

This article published: 26/04/2023

Published by Bath Liberal Democrats, 31 James St West, Bath, BA1 2BT. Printed and hosted by JPC Infonet, 2 St Georges Works, Trowbridge, Wiltshire, BA14 8AA. Your Privacy.