Evasive Brown misleads about ID scheme
7 January 2008
Gordon Brown lied in his interview with The Observer, says NO2ID [1]. The
civil liberties and privacy campaign this morning accused the Prime Minister
of making deliberately misleading statements about ID cards in a "softball"
interview with the Observer, published this Sunday, 6th January [2].
--
BROWN: “You know we are not trying to store information about individuals
that are not actually, that is not information already in passports.”
UNTRUE. The Identity Cards Act 2006 says that the National Identity Register
will contain 50 *categories* of information (of which biometrics are only
one) including details of every ID check. Over time, this would give
officials a detailed index of your private financial affairs; your GP,
hospital visits and medical records, your employment, education and legal
affairs. Much more information than is “already in passports”.
BROWN: “...when it comes to foreign nationals coming into the country and
the danger that there is illegal immigration into the country, I think most
people would support there being some form of identification that people are
asked to produce.”
MISDIRECTION. Suspected illegal immigrants can *already* be required to
produce forms of identification. They will, by definition, not be included
in the scheme but travelling on other, or no, documents. Brown talks about
“foreign nationals” to play on concern about immigration, but citizens of
other EU countries CANNOT be issued with UK ID cards either before all UK
citizens are, or afterwards as short-term residents. Anyone with an EU ID
document will be exempt from the scheme. The point is irrelevant.
BROWN: “So I don't think when people are dealing with their private
transactions they're so worried about the use of biometrics. As long as it
protects their identity and protects their identity being stolen and misused
for other purposes.”
MISDIRECTION and OMISSION.
1. Adding biometrics to a computer record will not protect the information.
It is one more thing to be lost. When your fingerprints are lost or copied,
you cannot be issued with new fingerprints, like a new password or PIN.
2. The whole point of the scheme is using people’s identity for other
purposes *by the state*. Brown also avoids mentioning the OTHER uses to
which biometrics in the National Identity Register will be put, such as
‘fishing expeditions’ by the police – maybe because such activity was
explicitly denied when the legislation was being debated in Parliament, only
to be declared as a purpose by Tony Blair once the Act was on the statute
books.
BROWN: “We're committed to the proposals that we put forward which are
essentially this, that the passport information that you now use to get your
passport, linked to the biometrics that are now available give you a better
form of protection as an individual.”
OMISSION and MISDIRECTION.
1. The scheme will take much more information than passport applications do
now. This is not about the “protection” of the individual but the *control*
of his identity by a government agency, the Identity and Passport Service.
In this context, the scheme appears largely to be for the convenience and
benefit of government agencies and officials, not citizens.
2. Brown doesn’t mention the ‘Transformational Government’ programme – to
which every government department is now committed [3] – in which the ID
scheme is intended to drive ‘joined-up’ government and facilitate ever more
information sharing about the citizen for the convenience of officials.
Perhaps because the Child Benefit records disaster has given information
sharing a justified bad name.
BROWN: “Yes, but under our proposals there is no compulsion for existing
British citizens.”
UNTRUE. The Identity Cards Act 2006 lets the Home Office “designate” any
official document. Individuals applying for a “designated document” MUST
ALSO apply to be entered onto the National Identity Register, or provide
evidence that they are already on it [4]. The plan is you will be forced to
“volunteer”. Unless Home Office plans have secretly changed, this will (from
a date not yet fixed) include everyone applying for a passport, followed
(according to ministerial statements) by everyone subject to CRB check,
including teachers, medical staff, security guards and carers. Once on the
Register, you cannot leave, and must *compulsorily* notify officials of all
changes in ‘registrable facts’ about you in those 50 categories.
--
Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator, commented:
“Gordon Brown’s inability to give a straight answer on ID cards, and the
deliberate deception – assuming it is not outright ignorance – in some of
his answers is scandalous.
“Either the Prime Minister is lying to the British people, or he doesn’t
understand the detail of his own programme. Even more than Mr Blair, he is
tying himself in knots to make ID cards seem like something they are not.
He’s not levelling with the public. If it is such a good thing, then just
why is this administration so evasive about its database-government scheme?”
-ENDS-
Notes for editors
1) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the
database state. See
http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for discussion of
database state initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.
2) The Prime Minister’s remarks about ID cards begin at the fifth question
in part 2 of the Observer’s transcript –
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,2236175,00.html . Every
substantive statement is untrue or misleading.
3) See the ‘Service Transformation Agreement’, published October 2007:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/B/9/pbr_csr07_service.pdf4) Section 5 (2). For the full text of the Identity Cards Act 2006, see:
http://opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/pdf/ukpga_20060015_en.pdfFor more information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact
Phil Booth (National Coordinator,
national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974
230 839, Guy Herbert (General Secretary,
general.secretary@no2id.net) on
07956 544 308, or Michael Parker (Press Officer,
press.officer@no2id.net) on
07773 376 166.
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