ID Cards scrapped for all except foreign nationals
Article published: Tuesday, June 1st 2010
It has been announced that the ID cards scheme and the National Identity Database will be scrapped within 100 days. The scheme was met with fierce opposition from campaign groups and all mainstream political parties with the exception of Labour. Both parties in the Lib-Con coalition had stated in their manifesto that the schemes would be abandoned and appear to have kept their promise, although foreign nationals will still be under close scrutiny.
The decision has been welcomed by campaign group NO2ID who fronted the appeal to have the scheme dismantled. New Home Secretary Theresa May announced on Thursday that this would mean the 15,000 cards already issued (at £30 each) would be invalidated without refund, saving the government £800m over the next 10 years at the expense of £450,000 spent by the public.
Speaking to MULE, North-West co-ordinator for NO2ID Dave Page said, “We’re obviously happy with the commitment to scrap both the card and the database.”
There are still concerns that the government still intends to have all foreign nationals carrying biometric ID cards by 2015, apparently required by EU legislation.
The controversial £5 billion scheme was first trialled in Manchester. ID cards were available to all Greater Manchester residents on a voluntarily basis, with foreign nationals forced to register. The cards contain detailed biometric data including finger print records, immigration status and benefit entitlements.
“This bill is the first step of many that this government is taking to reduce the control of the state over decent, law-abiding people and hand power back to them,” said May. It is unclear what this means regarding foreign nationals and how the new scheme will treat them.
The Contact Point Database, launched in 2009, which holds information about every child in England, will also be scrapped although there is still uncertainty on the future of the NHS’s Summary Care Records system, a matter of some contention between the two coalition parties before the elections.
The announcement has been largely regarded as a step in the right direction away from the database state, but NO2ID may still have some way to go with repealing the government’s database of foreign nationals, who will still be entered into a national identity database just as before, including details of facial dimensions and fingerprint data.
Joe Beech
More: QuickKick
Comments
No comments found
The comments are closed.
