Blunkett changes ID card scheme
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Plans to combine new compulsory ID cards with passports and driving licences are dropped by the government.
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More checks on the use of information collected by supermarket loyalty cards needed says David Blunkett.
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LONDON Invoking a global threat of terrorism, the British government announced plans on Tuesday to introduce national identity cards for the first time since the Second World War.
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DAVID Blunkett sacrificed his political career last night when he resigned as Home Secretary just days before an inquiry was due to report that the visa application for his former lover&#39;s nanny was &quot;fast-tracked&quot; after all.
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British Home Secretary David Blunkett is facing fresh questions over claims that he fast-tracked a visa application for his ex-lover&#39;s former nanny.
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Count them in, count them out, count them all about... Immigration Minister Liam Byrne this week unveiled - to a certain amount of derision - his vision of the ID Card scheme as some sort of 21st Century equivalent of the 19th Century railway network or the 20th Century national electricity grid. It will be pervasive, and in 20 years time it will be a great British institution, "part of the fabric of British life."â¦
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(InfoWorld) - The U.K. is delaying the start of the procurement process for the IT systems that will eventually issue ID cards for an estimated 50 million U.K. citizens over the next decade. A "major" procurement process was set to begin, but "we're not quite ready yet," said James Hall, chief executive of the U.K. Identity and Passport Service, which is in charge of the ID card project. Hall spoke Monday at the Gartner Inc. identity management conference in London. Hall did not say when procurement would start. The delay confirmsÂ doubts that surfaced a year ago about whether the ID card project could be kept on the government's schedule. A leaked memo released about year ago written by an official in Prime Minister's Tony Blair government outlined ongoing worries about whether the first ID cards could be delivered by 2008, in keeping with the government's schedule. The memo cited concerns over procurement, costs and program management. The U.K. government has several large IT projects under way, including a massive IT revamp of its National Health Service (NHS), which has also fallen under criticism for delays and difficulties with suppliers. The ID card program will cost an estimated Â£5.4 billion (US$10.6 billion), according to the Home Office. Once the ID card project is under way, the U.K. government will issue cards to citizens as they apply for a new passport. The ID card program met wide opposition over privacy concerns, but the government hopes the cards will enhance national security, reduce benefits fraud and strengthen immigration controls. The cards will be issued to those over 16 years old. Hall said it's hoped that businesses will embrace the national ID card as a form of identity, as long as it meets its goals of security and privacy. Hall, a 30-year veteran of Accenture Ltd., admitted he was initially a "skeptic" of the ID project at first, but now is a "passionate believer." "If we get this right, we can actually deliver some huge benefits," Hall said. Â
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Any bill to make it compulsory for  Britons to get an ID card is "several years" away, Home Office Minister Liam Byrne says.
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You're on an identity parade. Forever. The National Identity Register will allow police to add the entire adult population of the UK to their suspect list, giving them the opportunity to check fingerprints left at scenes of crime against those collected from ID card and passport applicants, says Tony Blair. Nor are fingerprints in other EU countries necessarily safe - the introduction of biometric technology, he adds, will "improve the flow of information between countries on the identity of offenders.â¦
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Britain is "sleepwalking into a surveillance society" because of government plans to introduce ID cards and a population register, the nation's information watchdog was quoted as saying.
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Straight answers not compulsory either For the third time in four days, Gordon Brown has sown doubts about the future of compulsory ID cards for UK citizens. Speaking at prime minister's question time today, Brown confirmed that it was "policy" for ID cards to become compulsory, but added the rider that this was subject to a vote in parliament.â¦
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A minister says fingerprinting of all visa applicants is the first of 10 changes in 2008 to make UK borders "stronger".
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A new digital system for identifying fingerprints is being adopted by police forces in England and Wales.
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The Home Office is touting ID cards as a solution to ID theft in today's Queen's Speech but a Yorkshire man has taken matters into his own hands.
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Controversial plans to introduce identity cards are being debated in the Commons on Thursday.
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Conservatives put big business in its place The IT industry has found itself in a handbagging spat with shadow home secretary David Davis over the Conservative party's plans to ditch ID cards should they win power from Labour.â¦
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Reports of Home Office letters raise new questions on whether David Blunkett "fast-tracked" a visa for his ex-lover's nanny.