Doubts surround national ID cards

Home Secretary David Blunkett's plans for a national ID card are gathering momentum.

A leaked document this week suggests the latest proposal is for an obligatory card for everyone over the age of 16, containing biometric data such as a fingerprint or iris scan.

Experts agree that technology is unlikely to be a problem - but there are a number of issues that will need to be addressed.

Management of the project will re-open the debate about who has access to what information, warned Mike Davis, senior analyst at researcher Butler Group.

"The project will have to be contracted out, so yet again we will be faced with issues about a private sector company holding details on the general public," he said.

"The Information Commissioner will have to look at the rules and restrictions in place - including the Civil Service code - because there will be thousands of people with varied levels of access."

The government will also need to learn from past experience of managing big public sector projects, he added.

"The scheme will require significant planning and trialling, and bitter experience tells us the government will go hell for leather without the necessary piloting because this is where we have had problems before," said Davis.

Security is not just a question of who can see what information. There are also issues surrounding the accuracy of the data, according to Peter Sommer, research fellow at the London School of Economics.

"With a single identity card with lots of associated data-sharing, it will be almost impossible for an outside organisation to audit whether the precautions the government says are in place are actually there," he said.

"If the cards have biometric data on them, we have to make sure the right data is associated with each card - which is a huge exercise with lots of scope for error.

"One implication is the creation of more reliable fake IDs, because once someone is able to get a card with false information, there will probably be no means by which that false information can be queried."

By focusing on the cards themselves, the government has approached the issue back-to-front, said Liberal Democrat IT spokesman Richard Allan.

"We have put the cart before the horse," he said. "The real benefit to the citizen will be from better national databases, such as the NHS and benefits databases, so the primary focus for government should be about getting those right.

"Having a physical ID that keys into those systems is secondary."

Geoff Llewellyn, director of strategy and government relations at smartcard supplier SchlumbergerSema, said biometric ID cards are needed to take advantage of the digital world.

"We need to have a secure electronic key that is 'padlocked' to the individual by means of a biometric, to get the benefits of the electronic world and avoid the risks," he explained.

Data protection legislation will need to be revised to take account of the potential of ID cards, said Llewellyn. And for citizens to trust the system, effective procedures for dealing with abuse will need to be in place.

"An ombudsman might be appropriate to allow citizens to feel that in circumstances where the system was abused, they could get sufficient and effective redress," he said.