Minister: No resale of ID card details
The Home Office is playing down fears it will sell on personal details of ID card holders to meet the cost of introducing the measure.
Immigration Minister Tony McNulty said the suggestion was “without foundation”, although banks would be allowed to compare details on their databases with the ID card database for a fee.
He was responding to claims by the Independent on Sunday that details could be passed on to private firms for an initial cost of £750 each.
The newspaper suggested firms would also be charged £750 for machines that could read biometric details, such as fingerprints and facial measurements, to check the carrier of the card matched the information contained on them.
Although verification would take place, the Minister dismissed the idea that private firms would be allowed to “go fishing” for information.
“Verifying facts about an individual’s identity is entirely the purpose of the database,” he said.
He also dismissed predictions emerging from a report by LSE academics that the ID cards scheme could cost £300 per person – and up to £18 billion over the next decade.
“I don’t recognise the substance of their cost uncertainty at all. The £300 a card figure, the £12-18 billion cost figure; we simply don’t recognise where they are coming from,” he said.
“Clearly we will analyse it fuller, and to be fair to the LSE, they are saying the £300 figure is an extrapolation from their figures, but doesn’t appear in the report.
“But I can assure you that the £300 is nowhere near the mark in terms of the cost of the card.”
The Government estimates the cost will be £93, forecasting that £6 billion will be spent operating the scheme over ten years.
The LSE report is due out later on Monday, ahead of the return of the ID Cards Bill to the House of Commons on Tuesday.
