LONDON—The biometric ID card scheme reaches another stage this month with residents of Manchester being invited to register, despite public fears of security, cost and coercion.

Only around 1,500 of a possible 1.7 million people in Manchester have asked for application forms, according to the UK Press Association.

The intended nationwide tagging index began in November last year with the compulsory photographing and finger-printing of foreign nationals who are students or who are here to marry residents.

Resistance from pilots and airside workers scuppered the attempt to make a trial with staff in London and Manchester airports compulsory. The mandatory nature of the first city-wide trial in Manchester has also been dropped.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said in July this year, “Given the growing problem of identity fraud and the inconvenience of having to carry passports, coupled with gas bills or six months worth of bank statements to prove identity, I believe the ID card will be welcomed as an important addition to the many plastic cards that most people already carry.”

In February this year it was reported that police could not read the cards. Identity minister Meg Hillier told silicon.com that the chip is a vital because the “fingerprint coded into the chip ... links you to the card”.

The broken link brought criticism from Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling on the same website: “Once again ministers have shown that the ID card project is absolutely farcical. What is the point of spending billions of pounds on cards that can’t be read in the UK?”

Lack of Confidence in Government IT Data Security

The long list of failings in government IT security has fuelled a lack of confidence in the Government’s ability to keep ID data safe.

Computers, laptops, CD-Roms, Top Secret files, Child Benefit records, files concerning military recruits, RAF personnel, Al-Qaeda, NHS organisations, Home Office prisoner records, and Government computer passwords have gone missing since May 2007.

In July 2008, the Ministry of Defence reported 121 USB sticks and 747 laptops had been stolen or lost.
“A government that pays out £4 billion in tax credits by mistake and trains 30,000 doctors for 22,000 jobs is not in control of itself, let alone anyone else,” says the Dematerialised ID website, a counter-proposal to the UK Home Office’s ID cards scheme.

The Government estimated the cost of the ID scheme in 2005 at £6 billion over 10 years.

A London School of Economics report published in 2008 said the Government had underestimated technical and administration costs and the total price could be more like £18 billion pounds – around £300 per individual.

According to the Liberal Democrats, £81.5 million was spent on the scheme in 2008/9, equating to £229,508 per day.

Phil Booth, from the campaign group NO2ID, said to newspapers, “Once you are on the database, you will be obliged to update Whitehall’s register on you for the rest of your life.”

ID Card Sheme Laid Out in Manchester