U.K. Home Office makes ID card trial voluntary

The U.K. Home Office has abandoned attempts to force workers at Manchester and London City airports to carry ID cards, opting to make the trial voluntary.

The trial was strongly opposed by pilots groups and unions. The Home Office had already scaled back its original plans and made the cards compulsory only for new workers.

John Oates writes that the British Airlines Pilots’ Association welcomed the change and said: “We have never seen the national ID card as an improvement to security and we are glad that the new Home Secretary has listened to BALPA.” Home Secretary Alan Johnson, however, said he wanted other aspects of the project speeded up. He wants the U.K. Border Agency to review its rollout of compulsory cards for foreign nationals in the United Kingdom — 50,000 have now been issued. Within three years every non-European national visiting the United Kingdom for more than six months will have to have a card.

Johnson said people living in the north-west would be able to get cards from early next year. He also breathed life into the idea of using the ID card as a drinking license. The government sees young people as less immediately opposed to carrying such a card. Johnson said: “These cards will benefit young people who, on average, have to prove their age more than twice as often as adults and I want to make that process simple and secure.”

Cards will be available to everyone in the United Kingdom sometime in 2011.

The Tories have already said they will scrap much of the £4.9 billion project if they win the next election.