London Guardian
Monday, November 6, 2006

Tony Blair will use his monthly press conference today to confirm his commitment to the introduction of identity cards and take on opponents of the controversial scheme.
The prime minister is expected to counter criticism that the project is too expensive and could infringe civil liberties by saying that it will help authorities to tackle crime, illegal immigration, terrorism and identity fraud.

He is also likely to challenge doubts over the success of one of the biggest IT projects in the world by saying that the scheme is on budget and on schedule to be working by 2008.

In an article for the Daily Telegraph today, Mr Blair confirmed that all non-EU nationals would need to carry ID cards in order to seek employment or gain access to public services.
He said that the cards would be compulsory even for overseas citizens resident in the UK for less than three months and would be required in order to obtain a national insurance number.

"This will enable us, for the first time, to check accurately those coming into our country, their eligibility to work, for free hospital treatment or to claim benefits," he wrote.

Mr Blair's defence of the multi-million pound policy came after a report by the government's information commissioner last week warned that Labour had presided over the creation of a "surveillance society".

The prime minister used his article in the Daily Telegraph to argue that such criticisms were out of step with the views of the public, who were in favour of the use of technologies, especially in tackling crime.

"It was very clear from last week's arguments about surveillance and the DNA database that the public, when anyone bothers to ask them, are overwhelmingly behind CCTV being used to catch or deter hooligans, or DNA being used to track down those who have committed horrific crimes," he wrote.

"That's what surveys suggest, too, about their position on ID cards."

Mr Blair said that the argument that the ID card scheme would infringe civil liberties no longer "carries much weight" in a world where people routinely provide information to a range of companies and organisations on a voluntary basis.

He said that safeguards, including the right of individuals to see what information is held on them and the requirement that organisations obtain the consent of individuals before accessing their details, should "meet reasonable concerns".

Mr Blair said that the inclusion of biometric information including fingerprint or iris recognition would make it harder for people to falsify the cards and therefore build false identities.

"What I do believe strongly is we can't ignore the advances in biometric technology in a world in which protection and proof of identity are more important than ever," he wrote.

In a television interview yesterday, the home secretary, John Reid, indicated that measures to control mass immigration - "the biggest new phenomenon in the world in the last decade" - would loom large in next week's Queen's speech.

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