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Strengthening Security, Protecting Identity: Home Office Publishes Identity Cards Bill

29 November 2004

Proposals for a national compulsory identity cards scheme, to strengthen national security and protect people’s identity, were set out by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, today as the Government published its Identity Cards Bill.

The scheme will provide a simple and secure ‘gold standard’ for proving identity, protecting people from identity fraud and theft and providing them with a convenient means of verifying their identity in everyday transactions.

The national identity cards scheme will also help to:

• disrupt the use of false and multiple identities which are used by organised criminals and in a third of terrorist-related activity
• tackle illegal working and immigration abuse
• ensure free public services are used only by those who are properly entitled to them
• ensure British citizens are able to travel freely as international requirements for secure biometric identity documents develop

The identity cards scheme will build on ongoing work to make passports more secure by including biometrics – unique personal identifiers such as facial image, fingerprints or iris images. Biometric identifiers combined with a secure database will enable people’s identity to be accurately verified and will prevent fraud and attempts to register multiple identities.

The scheme will cover all those resident in the UK, including all foreign nationals here for more than three months. Newly arrived foreign nationals will have to register from 2008. British citizens will initially enrol on the scheme as they renew their passports. Ultimately, when Parliament decides, it will become compulsory to register – though it will not be compulsory to carry the card.

Mr Blunkett said:

“The national identity cards scheme will give people confidence, convenience and security in an increasingly vital aspect of modern life – proving and protecting their identity.

“It will help tackle the activities of organised criminals and terrorists who depend on the use of multiple identities – identity cards will be a key part of the Government’s wide-ranging programme for tackling organised crime, at the centre of which will be the new Serious Organised Crime Agency.

“Identity cards will also help in the fight against illegal working and immigration and ensure public services are only used by those entitled to them.

“Safeguards to ensure protection of privacy are a critical part of the identity cards scheme. But our liberties will be strengthened, not weakened, by a universal scheme which ensures that all citizens’ identities are protected from abuse.

“Publication of the Bill marks a further step in the careful process of consultation and refinement which we began almost three years ago. This is an ambitious, long-term project and we are taking the time and care, drawing on outside expertise, to ensure we get it right.

“Across the world, the international community is demanding more secure identity in travel documents – including the USA, where visitors will need a biometric passport or visa by October 2005. In a fast-changing world, a national identity cards scheme based on secure biometrics will ensure the UKremains at the forefront of these developments and our citizens retain the freedom to travel easily.”

The Bill would cover the whole of the UK. Its provisions include:

• the statutory purposes of the scheme;
• establishing the National Identity Register;
• providing powers to issue identity cards;
• ensuring checks can be made against other databases to confirm an applicant’s identity and guard against fraud;
• setting out what information will be held and what safeguards will be put in place;
• enabling public and private sector organisations to verify a person’s identity by having it checked against the National Identity Register;
• making clear the limitations on the information which is held on the National Identity Register and which can be checked via the verification service;
• creating new criminal offences on the possession of false identity documents, including genuine documents that have been improperly obtained or relate to someone else;
• creating a specific offence on tampering with the National Identity Register;
• including enabling powers so that in the future access to specified public services could be linked to the production of a valid identity card; and
• providing a power at a future date for it to become compulsory to register and be issued with a card, including penalties against failure to register.

Notes for Editors:

1. A new executive agency will issue identity cards, starting in 2008. It will incorporate the functions of the United Kingdom Passport Service and work closely with the Home Office’s Immigrationand Nationality Directorate.
2. The Bill will create a National Identity Scheme Commissioner to have oversight of the whole scheme, including provision of information from the National Identity Register.
3. The Bill is available online at ww.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills.htm
4. The Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) and Race Equality Impact Assessment (REIA), also published today, are available online at www.identitycards.gov.uk.
5. The Home Office published its response to the Home Affairs Select Committee(HASC) report on identity cards on 27 October 2004, alongside a summary of responses to its consultation on identity cards. Both documents are available online at www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm63/6358/6358.htm (summary of findings from consultation) and www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm63/6359/6359.htm (response to HASC report).
6. A consultation paper on Entitlement Cards and Identity Fraud was published on 3 July 2002. The consultation period ended on 31 January 2003. The Home Secretaryset out Government plans for an identity card scheme and published the public consultation and polling results on 11 November 2003(Home Office press release 307/2003). These can be found at www.identitycards.gov.uk.
7. ‘Legislation on Identity Cards: A Consultation’ was published on 26 April 2004(Home Office press release 159/2004) and views were sought on the draft legislation during a 12 week consultation period which ended on 20 July 2004. 766 responses were received to the consultation on legislation, including 109 from organisations.
8. The Home Affairs Select Committee published its report on identity cards on 30 July 2004, including its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill. The Committee concluded that the Government had made a convincing case for proceeding with the introduction of identity cards and raised a number of detailed points.
9. The first phase of public research, between July 2002 and January 2003, showed that 79 per cent of respondents were in favour, or very much in favour, of the introduction of identity cards. Of the others, 13 per cent were against and eight per cent were unsure. A summary of findings was published in November 2003 (Home Office press release 307/2003).

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