U.K. biometric national ID schemeI. U.K. ID debate ethers new phase; loyal opposition remains defiant

After a two-year of battle the U.K. government finally got its way last week when Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons and the House of Lords, who had been united in opposing the introduction of national biometric ID cards, agreed to a compromise solution which, to the ID scheme opponents, appears more like a capitulation. The agreement allows U.K. citizens until 2010 the option to decline an ID card when they renew their passports. The reason why opponents do not think it was much of a compromise is that even though people will have until 2010 before they must commit to a biometric ID, they will still have to pay in the meantime for the cost of the card regardless of whether they receive it (because their tax money will go toward setting up the infrastructure for the system), and they will still have their fingerprint and iris scans stored in the national identity database.

The Tories in the House came out straight after agreeing to the compromise to say they will scrap the bill if they win the next general election. Given the amount of money that will likely have been spent on the ID card scheme by then, and the number of contracts that will have been signed, presumably with costly get-out clauses — this is not going to be and easy proposition. We also note that not all the Conservatives agreed to the compromise. Shadow Home Secretary David Davis decided to side with the Home Secretary on this one, but some of the more tech-savvy Conservative MPs, such as Grant Shapps, maintained their opposition to the end.

One of the more persistent critics of the national ID scheme has been the technology and business publication Silicon.com. The publication’s editorial was defiant:

Here on silicon.com we will shift the focus of our ID Cards on Trial campaign towards scrutinizing the procurement and delivery of the scheme every step of the way.

None of our original concerns over the cost, scope and benefits of ID cards have been answered satisfactorily by the government and so we will persevere. Indeed, having watched hours of parliamentary debates on the topic, we are now even more convinced that figures are being plucked from thin air and that the government is making some dangerous assumptions.

The Home Office will undoubtedly try and keep a lid on the ID card scheme but we will continue to investigate the costs and technical underpinnings. And the IT suppliers who sign up for ID card contracts will also see their work watched carefully by the media, nowhere less so than on these pages.

That’s the limit of our campaign - which all along has been based on feasibility rather than principles - but for those who want to take more direct action there are other avenues. Opposition group No2ID, for example, has vowed to fight on, warning that ID cards will become as unpopular as the Poll Tax once the wider general public realizes the full implications.