Councils, unions and the nations against ID


A growing number of Councils and other major bodies, such as the Scottish Parliament, and the Welsh and London Assemblies have passed strongly worded motions against ID cards. Many of these will refuse to cooperate with the ID scheme; some have even affiliated to NO2ID.

We would encourage you, even if there is not a local group in your area, to lobby your local Councillors to pass a motion against ID cards. You can do this by making an appointment or writing a letter.

NO2ID has produced a briefing document for Councillors about the impact of the National Identity Scheme on local government, which you can download (MS Word document).

Every Council is different. Don’t forget to speak to Councillors of all parties, not just the one(s) who propose the motion. Lay things on the line — the millions that each Local Authority is going to have to pay to make its systems compliant with the ID Register and people’s ID number usually wakes people up. This money has to come from somewhere — either cuts in local services, or rises in Council Tax.

It is also worth pointing out that the Home Office’s stated position is currently that every Government Department, Local Authority and public sector body will have to do a “business case” and decide whether or not to ‘buy in’ to the ID scheme, i.e. all the costs will come out of their existing budgets, but there are NO PENALTIES (yet) for those that decide not to join up.

NO2ID is all-party, non-partisan in our approach so do try to act as an ‘honest broker’ and make sure that everyone is as happy with the draft motion as possible before the meeting. Do not make assumptions about who will or won’t support the motion — ask. You may find Labour Councillors abstaining or even voting for the motion in some cases, as the ID scheme is far from popular within the wider Labour movement.

Why should a Council affiliate to NO2ID? Other than becoming part of the rapidly growing movement, they will (a) get a vote within the organisation and be able to propose people to our Advisory Board, (b) have access to help and information from NO2ID, e.g. if they need to work out the impact of the scheme in their Local Authority, and (c) establish a strongly pro-civil liberties and privacy stance to their constituents. Refusing to comply with ID cards could be seen purely as a concern about cost. Affiliating to NO2ID makes it clear that this is a principled action.

Don’t give it up without a fight, but don’t be disheartened if a particular Council just won’t affiliate. The point is to deny the Home Office access to as much of Local Government as possible for as long as possible. Resistance starts here!

For further advice and what assistance we are able to give, please phone the office on 020 7340 6077 or send an e-mail to office@no2id.net.

The following have passed strongly worded motions against the ID cards bill, and will not co-operate.

County, District, Metropolitan Borough, and Borough Councils

City Councils

  • Bridport Town Council
  • Bristol City Council
  • Cambridge City Council motion — PDF
  • Cardiff City Council motion — PDF
  • Durham City Council
  • Lancaster City Council motion — PDF
  • Liverpool City Council motion — PDF
  • Luton Council motion — PDF
  • Newcastle City Council
  • Norwich Council motion — PDF
  • Oxford City Council motion — PDF, second motion — PDF
  • Watford City Council motion
  • York City Council motion — PDF

In addition to these councils, the London Assembly have also passed a motion against ID cards

Opposition in other UK nations

  • Scottish Parliament motion — PDF
  • Welsh Assembly

Trades Unions

  • Liverpool TUC motion — PDF
  • South West TUC motion — PDF

Student Unions

If you would like to introduce a motion at your student union against identity cards and the national identity database, you could start with this outline draft motion for student unions.

  • University of Sussex Student Union