Blair: ID cards for foreigners by 2008
Speaking at his monthly press conference, the prime minister defended the ID card scheme, and announced that non-EU nationals would be required to have an ID card to work in the UK or access public services as soon as 2008.
This is two years sooner than the 2010 date pencilled in for identity cards to become compulsory for all UK residents.
“The benefits of a good identity system are very clear,” the prime minister told reporters at his monthly press conference.
“Identity theft for financial gain, illegal immigration and illegal working have all increased.”
He pointed out that one in four criminals use false identities, and that some terror suspects have up to 50 identities and that this has been part of al-Qaida training.
There are four main benefits to the identity card scheme, Mr Blair claimed.
- Making the nation’s borders more secure: “We can be clear who is here, improve the integrity of our asylum system, reduce illegal immigration, and disrupt terrorist activity.”
- Improved protection to the most vulnerable: “The National Identity Register will allow people to know that their prospective nanny, child minder or carer is indeed the person they claim to be.”
- Criminal detection: “With secure ID we can speed up [detection rate] improvements.”
- The prevention of fraud: “The enterprising criminal has it fairly easy at the moment…forging an ID card and a matching biometric record will be quite another matter.”
Mr Blair then weighed these benefits against criticisms to the scheme.
On the subject of the perceived inability of the government to deliver large-scale IT projects, he pointed to the DWP’s payment programme with 22.5 million accounts now paid directly, which he said was “delivered on time, under budget”.
On criticisms that personal liberty would be undermined, he said individuals “will have the right to see what information is held on them; the register will not contain medical records, tax or benefits information and full accreditation will be required for any organisation to access the data with the individual’s consent”.
On cost, Mr Blair pointed out that most of the additions would have to be introduced anyway under the biometric passport scheme.
“Even if the whole ID card scheme stopped today, 70 per cent of the cost of the combined passport and ID card will be incurred in any case,” he said.
“On current estimates biometric passports will have an average unit cost of £66. An ID card will add less than £30 cost on top of that. This is less than £3 per year over a ten-year card life.”
He added: “I don’t quite get [the Big Brother debate],” pointing out that 80 per cent of the UK population already had a passport and would have to renew this to a biometric one within a decade anyway.
“The real issue here is not privacy or cost, it is modernity,” Mr Blair concluded.
“We face some new problems. Biometric technology offers new solutions. But, in addition, we can already glimpse what else might be possible.”
“It is about the future and future challenges and meeting them effectively.”
Opposition parties rejected many aspects of Mr Blair’s defence of the scheme.
Shadow home secretary David Davis said: “As usual Tony Blair’s attempted defence of ID cards has left us with more questions than answers.”
Mr Davis pointed out government ministers state 95 per cent of benefit fraud is caused by people lying about their circumstances, not their identity.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Nick Clegg added: “Tony Blair must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if he seriously believes that the creation of the world’s largest identity database will be a magic cure for identity fraud.
“All the evidence from Britain and abroad shows that big government databases just become the favoured target for ever more sophisticated organised criminals.”
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have said they will scrap the ID card scheme if they are voted into office.
