UK Identity Cards Rejected

Last week, the UK's House of Lords rejected a government proposal that would have required passport applicants to register for an ID card. In an earlier news item, Government Technology reported it as having passed.

Phil Booth, national coordinator of NO2ID, a non-partisan organization opposed to national ID cards said: "All the spin today has been about passports, but if the bill passes unamended you could be forced to go to a registration center to be fingerprinted to get any official document the Home Secretary chooses. Your driving license, an employment check, even a student loan could become your passport to loss of privacy and a lifetime of bureaucratic identity control."

Andy Burnham, a Home Office minister, said that the government would press the measure, and that the ID card proposal is intended to become compulsory for all UK residents, and that it would provide additional "safeguards and scrutiny."