ID Cards Scrapped in 90 Days

by Katy Murcutt - Paralegal

02 June 2010, filed under Consumer

Government plans for identity cards for all citizens of the UK are to be scrapped in less than 90 days, it was announced last week. In contrast, biometric permits shall continue to be issued to all foreign nationals residing within the United Kingdom until further notice.

The National Identity Register, a database containing all biometric and biographic data of each card holder, shall be destroyed in the first piece of legislation being introduced by the coalition Government.

In 2001, under the supervision of then Prime Minister Tony Blair, the scheme was first introduced as a way of safeguarding individuals against identity theft, as well as being deemed a solution to terrorism, major crime and benefit fraud.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has stated the ID Cards were to be scrapped due to their intrusive nature and the overall costs associated with the scheme. Civil liberties activists have welcomed the Governments announcements and have now turned their attentions to the need to scrap foreign national’s biometric permits.

The Identity Documents Bill is part of a new generation of legislation to pass through Parliament after the Queens speech on 25th May 2010. The main purpose of the Identity Documents Bill is to nullify the ID Card. The result of this will be that those who already have one will no longer be able to use it for formal identification when travelling in Europe.

The Government’s aim is to have the Bill passed and implemented into law by the end of August this year. It has been projected that the scrapping of this scheme shall save the taxpayer £22 million every year after the cost of destroying the database have been accounted for. Further to this, an additional £800 million would be saved up to 2020 by the lack of need to over charge for the ID Card as a way of making back money to cover the costs of the database in the first place.

Once the Identity Documents Bill has passed through Parliament and attained Royal Assent, the Identity and Passport Service shall inform all customers, foreign Governments, border controls and airports of the change to UK law.

The role of Identity Commissioner is yet to be terminated. The public panels, which were formed to analyse the identity cards scheme were disbanded earlier last month.