The open plan for �UK Stasi files�

11 October 2007

CORRECTION: NO2ID [1] withdraws its press release of yesterday: "Home

Office dare not admit motive for ID cards" [2], as a government document now

sets out clearly the ambition for a single centralised government file to

track every person in Britain throughout their whole life.

Its release overshadowed by the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Report, the

blandly-named "Service Transformation Agreement" [3] issued by HM Treasury,

sets out in fifty-eight pages a general vision and departmental service

plans. The latter, forming the bulk of the document, explain how each

government department will use "identity management" to collate and share

information about citizens and businesses.

Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator, said:

"Astonishingly, the stalker state now swaggers out of the shadows expecting

a welcome. Presented in the soothing tone of 'customer service', this is an

explicit plan for the centralised surveillance of every significant event in

every British resident's life - a modern Stasi file.�

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

1) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the

database state. Scroll down http://www.no2id.net for a list of 'database

state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.

For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please

contact Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, 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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