|
A third 'will refuse ID checks'
BBC
Thursday April 5, 2007
One in three people are expected not to cooperate with identity
card checks, Home Office papers from 2004 suggest.
Papers revealed under information laws show officials have worked
on the basis 60% of people would carry a card, during the scheme's
voluntary phase.
They assume another 10% would confirm their ID via fingerprint
or eye scans but 30% "will refuse" to voluntarily show
their card or biometric data.
The Home Office said the documents were "incredibly out of
date".
A spokesman said the identity card scheme had evolved a great deal
since these "historic documents" were produced.
But he declined to say whether the assumptions - which only covers
people who have got an ID card - themselves had changed.
Mark Oaten
The working assumptions were revealed in the documents published
by the Department for Work and Pensions under the Freedom of Information
laws.
They show that the assumption was that the cards, due to be introduced
on a voluntary basis from 2008, would become compulsory to own -
though not carry - in 2014.
Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten had asked for the information to be made
public when he was the party's home affairs spokesman in 2004.
The department had resisted his request, which came under the Freedom
of Information Act.
But the department was ordered to release the data by the Information
Commissioner - a decision which was subsequently backed by the Information
Tribunal.
'Halving identity fraud'
The assumptions were included in reports about the costs and benefits
of the scheme in reducing identity fraud.
In a letter to Mr Oaten, released with the information, the DWP
said the information was produced in October 2004, but as government
policy about the ID cards had changed the original estimates "are
no longer valid".
They do show that at the time the DWP expected ID cards to halve
identity fraud from Income Support and Jobseekers Allowance funds
from £50m to £25m a year.
The background assumptions reveal officials expected it to take
six years for everyone to get an ID card.
Ninety per cent of people would have got them combined with a passport
or driving licence - combinations that have since been changed in
the current version of the scheme.
'Hopeless flaw'
Foreign national residency permits would account for about 3% of
all identity cards, with 7% being taken by people independently
of getting a new passport or driving licence.
The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives both oppose the identity
card scheme.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Jeremy Browne said: "A
major failing of ID cards is that it will cost billions of pounds
to coerce law-abiding people into providing their details while
those with genuinely malign intentions will strive to avoid complying
with the authorities."
Labour says ID cards will have a wide range of benefits and plans,
if it wins the next election, to bring in new legislation to make
it compulsory to own - but not necessarily carry - a card.
INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
|
