ID cards by "coercion" for workers, students... and now drivers
26 January 2008
For immediate release, 26/1/08
ID cards by "coercion" for workers, students... and now driversA Home Office document leaked to the Sunday People [1] shows that the government is considering "various forms of coercion" to force people onto the ID cards database. Young people "who may be applying for their first Driving Licence" are picked out as a "target group".
A slide headed "Contract Renewals" from last week's leaked documents [2] – which showed that airport workers, students and people applying for a bank account could be forced to register for ID cards from as soon as 2009 – indicates that the DVLA is intended to be the "interim card supplier" for the ID scheme until 31/10/2010.
Phil Booth, NO2ID's [3] National Coordinator, commented:
"The Prime Minister says that no British citizen will be compelled to have an ID card [4]. But forcing people to register on the ID database or forgo driving a car or getting a job or going to college certainly sounds like compulsion – unless Mr Brown considers independent travel, employment and higher education a dispensable luxury.
"Either Gordon Brown has no clue about the Home Office's actual plans or he's misleading the British public. He can split hairs or play with language all he likes. We've now seen the documents that confirm what NO2ID has said all along – the database state will be introduced by coercion, pure and simple."
-ENDS-
Notes for editors
1) Reported in 'Coercion claims over ID Cards', Press Association, 26/1/08 - http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hIWHYw7_9wNUVdZFnIFYaeDx4xyw
2) Bullet points on the leaked PowerPoint presentation, entitled 'NIS Delivery Strategy', say:
* Our first priority should be to issue cards to those who are employed in positions of trust where identity assurance is critical to determining their appropriateness for that employment ("Trusted Relationships")
* Alongside this, we should issue ID cards to young people to assist them as they open their first bank account, take a student loan, etc
Based on Home Office documents published in 2005 and a 'trial' in 2007, NO2ID believes that "Trusted Relationships" could be expanded to mean
*anyone* requiring a CRB check for their job or volunteering.
3) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.
4) From Observer interview with Gordon Brown, 6/1/08:
[Observer]: So it would be that British citizens and non-British citizens would need them.
[Gordon Brown]: Yes, but under our proposals there is no compulsion for existing British citizens.
For 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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