ID cards can help fight social exclusion
Meg Hillier writes in Progress Online, advocating the Home Office’s ID Cards Scheme:
There is so much potential for a service which has citizens’ rights at its heart. It can help reach the very people who find it hard to assert their rights now. And the technological possibilities are exciting.
My vision is of an identity service where government’s role is limited to ensuring safety and security in providing the infrastructure. It will be for others to build the broader range of services which will add value to individuals.
I want to see a simple and convenient tool which helps secure that vital first job, or eases the way to a student loan or a first bank account.
I want to see a government-backed identity verification service that enables all, including the socially excluded, to access a wide range of services on their own terms.
I want to see a tool that is flexible enough to make life easier in an increasingly online and complex world.
We have achieved so much. I remain convinced of the public good that the service can provide, and of the empowerment that we can deliver for the citizens of this country.
March 15th, 2010 at 17:48
Meg Hillier writes:
However, the scheme on which her department is squandering £230,000 of taxpayer’s money daily ignores the online world. See:
http://www.silicon.com/management/public-sector/2010/02/24/id-cards-holding-back-21st-century-economy-39745512/
March 15th, 2010 at 19:36
Very interesting, that article at http://www.silicon.com and very encouraging that the NIR has built-in obsolescence.
March 15th, 2010 at 20:04
I would have no objection if it were that the government were “just supplying the infrastructure”.
Of course, that is not what they are doing.
March 18th, 2010 at 20:19
If the govt is so bothered about empowering people why doesn’t it publish the Gateway project about the feasibility of the ID cards?