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5 May 2024

Manchester to be testing ground for ID card scheme

Article published: Sunday, February 1st 2009

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced that Manchester is likely to become a "beacon area" experiment for the introduction of ID Cards, speaking at a visit to the city on 29 January.

The experiment would test how effective the ID card system is and how the population reacts to it.  An autumn start date is projected for the 18 month pilot, which will be combined with the introduction of mandatory ID cards for workers at Manchester Airport.

The scheme is likely to meet strong resistance from campaigners in the city. Earlier this week, local civil liberties campaign group NO2ID called on Manchester’s MPs to oppose radical data sharing powers which were debated in Parliament this Monday as part of the Coroners and Justice Bill.

The bill would allow ministers to access any private information about UK citizens, collected by any organization for any purpose, and share it with anybody of their choosing. For example, the Minister for Health could access Tesco’s club card database and see who’s buying more wine than the supermarket average.

The NO2ID campaign claim this legislation creates a true database state. Manchester Co-ordinator Dave Page said, "This bill will affect everybody in Manchester. People will not be able to trust any organisation to keep their personal information out of Government hands, and the Government admit that they cannot keep that information safe from identity thieves and hackers. They are trying to sneak this legislation into a boring Bill." 

"The so-called safeguards in the legislation are meaningless words put there to placate the unwary. Neither the people affected nor the Information Commissioner can stop this data sharing, and MPs cannot debate or amend the sharing orders," he concluded.

Manchester NO2ID supporters have written to John Leech, Gerald Kaufman and Tony Lloyd to protest the plans, and the group co-ordinator has contacted Paul Goggins and Graham Stringer.

Andrew Bowman 01/02/09

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