ID:

JUST West Yorkshire together with the undersigned individuals and organisations call on the Labour government to withdraw the implementation of the National Identity Scheme immediately and develop responses to contemporary challenges which uphold the principles of individual liberties and civil and human rights.

The National Identity Scheme

The government has set out its plan for the delivery of the National Identity Scheme (NIS) and views are being currently sought on its implementation plan. The scheme has been approved by Parliament and is now enshrined in law despite clear objections to the scheme from numerous quarters (see below for “What Others Say about the ID Scheme”).

What does an identity card do?

An identity card is a document issued in accordance with the provisions of the Identity Cards Act 2006 and the UK Borders Act 2007.

The National Identity scheme will link your facial image and fingerprints alongside your name and address to create your identity record and it will be stored onto a new National Identity Register (NIR). A subset of this information will also be stored on your passport or on an identity card which is a plastic card with a digital photograph like a driving licence, and a chip like a bank card.

Who will it affect?

From 2008 identity cards will be issued in the form of biometric immigration documents to foreign (non European Economic Area) nationals.

In the second half of 2009, identity cards will be issued to British and foreign nationals (including EEA citizens) working in sensitive roles or locations.

From 2010 it will be issued on a voluntary basis to young people.

From 2011/12 British citizens will be enrolled at high volumes with a choice of receiving a separate identity card, passport or both.

JUST’s Response to the Proposed ID Implementation Plan

The government’s decision to roll out the identity card scheme on the basis that it will tighten immigration controls and fight terror highlights that the key impetus for the scheme is politically driven. Its implementation is therefore likely to be discriminatory, almost certainly disadvantaging sections of the population who are already disproportionately targeted by surveillance and policing operations.

JUST therefore wholeheartedly shares the concerns of human rights organisations such as Liberty who believe that the scheme will not only fundamentally change the relationship between individual and state but it will also have a detrimental impact on race relations as vulnerable groups in society will be adversely affected (see below for “Liberty’s Existing Work on ID Cards”). The scheme will also profoundly intrude on personal privacy as the amount of information held on the national database and the uses made of that information will increase dramatically. Given the government’s poor record on data security, the scheme has the potential for putting individual’s safety at significant risk.

Likewise the safeguards that the scheme offers in relation to “unauthorised access” and secure data management whereby “very few people are able to see all parts of the register” are likely to be compromised in the event of perceived threats to public security. The moving of the legal goalposts in relation to the number of days in which terrorist suspects can be detained without charge, demonstrates the government’s preparedness to privilege security over human rights. Likewise the fact that there is now a presumption in favour of data-sharing across the European Union for the purposes of crime prevention and detection highlights the fact that the ID scheme can severely compromise individual liberties and freedom.

JUST believes that the benefits that are being claimed by government in relation to the scheme are unlikely to yield the dividends it is claiming for the following reasons:

1. All 4 of the London bombers were UK citizens and the possession of identity cards would not have changed the outcome of the attacks. Similarly the men responsible for the 9/11 and Madrid terrorist attacks had valid identification.
2. The argument that ID cards will counter illegal immigration is misleading as asylum seekers have been required to carry ID cards since 2000.
3. The assertion that identity cards will prevent fraud, is according to Liberty false, because most identity fraud takes place remotely, online, over the phone or using false ‘seed’ documents such as driving licences, passports etc. Privacy International too disputes the government’s assertions on the grounds that the majority of benefit fraud is through under-reporting of income, or non-reporting of family and financial circumstances. Benefits agencies worldwide agree that false identity is not a key issue.

JUST’s Response to the Specific Proposals in the National Identity Scheme Implementation Plan

Foreign nationals

By making biometric immigration documents a precondition for entry into the UK for all non-foreign EEA nationals, the scheme effectively strips an individual’s right to withhold his/her unique information from the state on the grounds of civil liberties. This introduces an element of coercion and takes away the principle of free choice in relation to the release of personal data.

The labeling of students and people applying for leave to remain for marriage as higher-risk immigration categories, is discriminatory and privileges the rights of some groups over the rights of another.

People working in sensitive roles or locations

The government’s promotion of identity cards on the basis that it will promote security of sensitive locations through “making pre-employment checks of staff easier” and ensuring “high level of identity assurance” is a false argument.

Firstly these vital checks should already be in place and secondly it should not require a national programme which has a disproportionate opportunity cost in terms of liberty to ensure that the travelling public is kept safe.

Young People

The government’s rhetoric that identity cards for young people is voluntary is dishonest as the Tories point out that students will be “blackmailed” into holding identity cards to apply for student loans, open bank accounts and start employment from 2010 onwards. It will lead to the collection of fingerprints and other biometric details of over two million young people entering higher education each year by stealth. The pooling of personal biometric and fingerprint data together with a burgeoning DNA data base which by next year is expected to hold 1.5 million samples belonging to youngsters aged between ten and 18 has serious implications for the privacy and freedom of young people in the UK.

British and EEA nationals

The benefits touted by the government in rolling out the scheme to all British and EEA nationals on the basis that it will enabled joined up public services, highlights that the scheme will be used to share information between government agencies, without the holder’s consent. The evidence contained in the annual report by the Interception of Communications Commissioner that 1,000 applications are being made a day to intercept private communications not just from government departments, but from the fire service, revenue and customs and 474 local authorities, with a view to collating information related to suspected terrorism but also "rogue traders, fly-tippers and fraudsters" (the Commissioner's words) highlights the absence of checks and balances and the scope for personal data to be abused by the current scheme.

Furthermore the identification of the following agencies as key partners in the scheme’s delivery (The Identity and Passport Service (IPS), The UK Border Agency, Foreign and Commonwealth office, the Department for Work and Pensions) highlights the fact that the scheme is politically motivated with long-term consequences for civil liberties and human rights.

What Others Say about the ID Scheme

Nick Clegg – Leader, Liberal Democratic Party

"It is this Government who have turned the British public into the most spied upon on the planet," noting that 1,000 bugging requests are made per day, one million people who have committed no crime are on a national DNA database, and 5,000 schools are now fingerprinting children. "Is this what the Prime Minister meant when he spoke so stirringly a few months ago about the great British tradition of liberty?"

David Davis - Shadow Home Secretary, Conservative Party

The Tories promise the scrap the scheme if they take power after the next election, likely in 2010. "The National Identity Register, which will contain dozens of personal details of every adult in this country in one place, will be a severe threat to our security and a real target for criminals, hackers and terrorists. This is before you take the government's legendary inability to handle people's data securely into account."

Shammi Chakrabati – Director, Liberty

"Yet another re-launch of the ID scheme looks suspiciously like a new sales pitch for the same bad product. ID cards remain disastrous for our purses, privacy and race relations. A slow soft sell won't change this thoroughly bad idea."

Phil Booth - NO2ID Campaign

"This is a marketing exercise. Whether you volunteer or are coerced on to the ID database, there's no way back. You'll be monitored for life. That's why the Government is targeting students and young people, to get them on before they realise what's happening."

Ama Uzowuru – Vice President for Welfare, National Union of Students

"It is extremely disappointing that the government is planning to use students as guinea pigs for this scheme by forcing them to take on ID cards in order to apply for a loan. Besides being morally reprehensible, this plan is also completely impractical. The student loan system is complicated enough as it is, without introducing yet another layer of bureaucracy to the process. Many students change address at least once a year and would be obliged to report such changes in their personal circumstances or face a £1,000 fine.We would also be concerned for the safety of students' personal information if they were forced to enter the ID card system."

Roger Wiltshire - Secretary-general, British Air Transport Association

He described the relaunch plan, which will make it compulsory for workers in airports and other sensitive locations to carry ID cards, as a "half-baked and extremely dubious PR initiative".

"The home secretary's proposals offer no benefits or added value at all, as far as we can see. They will, however, add yet another layer of bureaucracy and millions of pounds of expense for thousands of airport workers and businesses."

Jim McAusland - General Secretary, British Airline Pilots' Association

"The implication of not being able to work as a pilot without a UK ID is nothing short of coercion. It also raises questions about the many professional non-UK pilots flying for UK airlines who will not be able to secure an ID card. On a practical level, and from what is known about the plans, this would be an additional requirement to the existing criminal record check, the five-year reference check, the airside pass process, which itself varies from airport to airport, and the inconsistent security regimes practised at check-in at individual airports. The combination of all of these existing checks is already seen by the majority of pilots as unco-ordinated, intrusive and unprofessional, and has been shown in surveys to be highly stressful and a growing threat to flight safety. The home secretary's proposals offer no improvements in security or any other benefits, as far as we can see."

Liberty’s existing work on ID cards

Liberty’s sequence of 2006 briefings on the ID Cards Bill

Liberty’s substantive October 2005 Briefing for the Lords on the ID Cards Bill

Liberty’s October 2007 ‘Overlooked’ Report by our Policy Director on surveillance and privacy generally (chapters 5 and 6 cover ID Cards and the National DNA database)

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