[Shadow_Group] Fw: Make your identity known -- or face a fine of £1,000

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Make your identity known -- or face a fine of £1,000
By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent, The Times - London
November 30, 2004
 
People who fail to tell the Government when they move to a new address
will face a fine of up to £1,000 under the Government's plans for
identity cards published yesterday.
 
Failure to register for the scheme will also carry a fine of up to £1,000
and anyone caught tampering with the database containing the details of
40 million people could be jailed for ten years.
 
The fines and jail terms were outlined in the Identity Cards Bill
published by the Home Office which admitted that full costings of the
scheme could not be provided because the technology involved was still
developing.
 
The scheme could become compulsory sooner than previously thought as the
Bill makes no reference to previous ministerial assertions that 80 per
cent of adults would have to register for a voluntary scheme before it
was made mandatory.
 
The identity card scheme will be phased in from 2007-2008 and is to be
combined with a passport. Anyone applying for a new passport will have no
choice but to receive the identity card.
 
Last month the Government said that the cost would be £85, but notes
accompanying the Bill said that this figure was based on 2004 prices. The
notes said that the actual fee would be made clear when the first
chargeable cards are issued.
 
The Bill contained little new information on the cost of the huge project
which has been estimated at between £1.3 billion and £3.1 billion. But it
did reveal that card readers, which will be required at thousands of
benefits offices, GPs' surgeries and other government departments, will
cost up to £750 each. These costs are not included in the overall
estimates.
 
Failing to sign up to the database will carry a fine of up to £2,500 and
individuals who submit a spoiled application could be fined up to £1,000.
Not updating registered details such as addresses will be punishable with
fines of up to £1,000 in the county courts -- or the sheriff courts in
Scotland -- as will failing to renew a card.
 
This sanction will apply from the moment cards start being issued in
2007-2008 -- before Parliament has voted to make it compulsory for
everyone to have the document.
 
Ministers expect that 80 per cent of the population will have the
identity card by 2014.
 
David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said: "The identity card scheme will
give people confidence, convenience and security in an increasingly vital
aspect of modern life -- proving and protecting their identity.
 
"Publication of the Bill marks a further step in the careful process of
consultation and refinement which we began almost three years ago."
 
A host of new criminal offences will be created by the Bill to deal with
people who try to abuse the new ID cards. Fraudulently using a card will
carry up to 10 years' imprisonment, as will creating a false entry on the
National Identity Register, or tampering with it.
 
Fraudulently obtaining an ID card, or altering one, will carry a sentence
of up to two years. Officials with access to the database will face up to
two years in jail if they disclose details without authorisation.
 
The ID cards will carry "biometric" details about each person such as
fingerprints or an electronic scan of the iris of the eye. These details
-- along with a photograph, signature, date of birth, address and
nationality -- will also be stored on the central register.
 
Officials will be able to compare data on the card with the register,
theoretically making the cards impossible to forge.
 
Under the Bill, the Home Secretary has the power to force anyone to
provide information required for background checks in ID card
applications. The register will also record previous addresses, a new
register number for each person, National Insurance numbers, passport
numbers and driving licence numbers.
 
It will record details of every person who countersigns an application
for an ID card, and every time a card is amended, lost, destroyed or
stolen.
 
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: "The case for ID cards is
still to be made. First, what is its purpose? Second, does the technology
exist to enable it to curb terrorism, serious crime and the avalanche of
illegal immigration? Third, is the Home Office capable of introducing
them? "Fourth, is it cost-effective and fifth, can we protect civil
liberties and privacy, not just in the use of the ID cards but also in
its associated databases?"
 
COST OF A CARD
 
 The identity card scheme is to be phased in from 2007-08, when anyone
who applies for or renews a passport will have to get a card
 The estimated cost to the public of the passport/identity document will
be £85, based on today's prices
 The overall estimated costings are put at between £1.3 billion and £3.1
billion, not including the cost of machines to read cards, which will be
£750 each
 It will not initially be compulsory to carry the card
 But Parliament is likely to vote in 2014 on whether to make it a legal
requirement for every citizen to have one
 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1381222,00.html<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1381222,00.html>
 


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