Forget passports – teachers and kids are the new ID card targets
John Lettice, writing in The Register, has further analysis of recent Home Office leaks:
Teachers and 16 year olds are the favoured ’soft targets’ for the redesigned ID card scheme rollout, according to an Identity & Passport Service planning document seen by The Register. As suggested in leaks last weekend, IPS now plans to soft-pedal fingerprints and – astoundingly – it seems on the point of abandoning the notion of forcing ID cards onto the public via passport renewals.
The document, National Identity Scheme Options Analysis – Outcome, appears to be a summary report of strategic planning sessions which took place at the end of last year, and has more than a smack of desperation about it. Although e-borders and immigration, ‘counting them all in and counting them all out’ has been the main focus of the government’s identity sales pitch over the past year, and identity cards are a key component of the full e-borders picture, actually doing it turns out to be too hard, too expensive, and the benefits “narrow in nature”. Yes, Immigration Minister Liam Byrne has precious little else to talk about, but no, that’s not how they’re planning to do it.
