Losing Sleep...

To the HO

Dear sir/madam,

As you will know, the ID Card Bill was passed by the House of Lords on the 29th March of this year. The legislation, changing as it does the relationship between citizen and state, was deservedly controversial and needless to say, many of the issues with regards the workings of the scheme have yet to be satisfactorily resolved. With this in mind I have compiled a list of questions that, were I to be provided with reasoned answers, would put me at my ease. I thank you in advance for your patient handling of my enquiries.
The Bill passed on the proviso that until 2010, citizens renewing their passport will be entered onto the National Identity Register but will have the option of getting a card. The card is currently priced at £30. Am I to understand that those choosing not to receive a card will not have to pay any registration fee when being entered onto the database? If this is indeed the case, how does this effect the financing of the scheme as a whole?
The passport has recently suffered a price increase to cover the cost of incorporating an RFID chip so that it may contain a digitised passport photo bringing it in line with standards being brought in by the ICAO. Am I right in saying that no money from passport sales will go towards the National Identity Register? There have been accusations that the passport is subsidising the NIR allowing the ID Cards to remain at an artificially low price. Is this the case? Given that the ID card will be useable as a travel document within Europe, what level of impact is this likely to have on the sale of passports?
Mr Burnham has stated categorically that the idea that the RFID chips being used in the ID cards can not be read at a distance. Currently IBM’s advertising campaign suggests that RFID chips can be used to track to the mile goods in transit. Is the junior minister correct, or the computer manufacturer?
I understand from written answers given by Mr Burnham that business plans have been drawn up to cover the implementation of the NIR scheme in various arms of the government, and that these costs have not been included in the £6 billion budget laid out for the NIR itself. Do the various arms of government already have access to these business plans?
Nortrhop Grumman, the company currently responsible for maintaining the fingerprint database used by the police has stated that the ID cards will probably need replacing every three to five years. The Passport Office also believes that passport issue should move to a five-year cycle in part to prevent problems with the chips wearing out. Will citizens be charged a further £30 when renewing their cards? Will the cards be issued by post, or will they be issued face-to-face? Will the NIR scheme make use of card renewals in order to renew biometrics which, according to most experts, change over time?
It has been suggested that the NIR scheme will allow for tighter control of illegal workers. I have yet to see it explained how the scheme will be an improvement on the current system. It appears that employers who wish to employ people illegally simply fail to go through proper legal procedures. What will prevent them doing this with the NIR in place? Furthermore, am I to understand that when starting work a full biometric check will be carried out? If so, how will this work in practicality?
Mr Blair has intimated that the NIR will allow people to check their NHS records online, something that he says is impossible currently due to the need to prove an individual’s identity. How will the NIR allow people to check their NHS records online?
Much has been said about commercial confirmatory access to the NIR. Presumably this will be by way of biometric checks carried out on the premises of private businesses. Are we to assume that the government, and whoever wins the lucrative NIR contracts, will provide and maintain the biometric readers necessary? How will the Government safeguard against disreputable companies employing adapted biometric readers in order to collect data so that they may “spoof” it at a later date?
When has it been forecast that the scheme will start to make a return on the investment?
In July 2002 the figure of £1.3 billion was attached to identity fraud in this country. In February of this year the figure stood at £1.7 billion. Given that, as has been ably demonstrated by the media, much of this cannot be recovered through the NIR scheme, what is the moral grounding of using it a justification of the ID Card Bill? Has a more relevant figure been drawn up, and if so, what is it?
It has been suggested by IT experts such as Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft UK and the former senior MI6 officer Lady Park that the NIR will become a honeypot for identity fraudsters. What is the government’s position on this belief? What safeguards are to be put in place to prevent this from happening, given previous government IT projects susceptibility to crime. Charles Clarke believes that the consolidation of the entire countries personal information in one place will be in some way making things harder for identity fraudsters. How so?
We have been told that “lessons have been learned” with regards IT procurement. What lessons have been learned?
Given that cosmetic forgeries of ID cards came out in Japan four months after the genuine cards were released, what kind of anti-forgery measures will the UK ID cards incorporate to prevent the same thing happening over here?
Given the contentious nature of the scheme, what sort of get-out clauses will be in place with the contractor, should critics of the scheme prove to be right?
Does the home office believe, as Mr Burnham said on the Today programme on the 28th of March that we will be required to prove our identity “day in, day out”, or on the other hand, does it side with the view of Mr Burnham, who suggested in a letter to the Observer on the 26th of March that we will be required to prove it only “when it is important to verify identity. That is not an everyday occurrence for the majority”?

Yours sincerely,

Simon Scott.