Identity Cards

HC Deb 24 May 2004 vol 421 cc1415-22W

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the members of the Identity Cards Programme Board. [173130]

Mr. Browne

The members of the Identity Cards Programme Board are John Gieve (Permanent Secretary, Home Office and Programme Board Chair), Helen Edwards (Director General of Communities Group, Home Office, and Senior Responsible Owner), Bernard Herdan (United Kingdom Passport Service), Stephen Hickey (Department for Transport), Mark Fisher (Department for Work and Pensions), Bill Jeffrey (Home Office, Immigration and Nationality Directorate), Dennis Roberts (Office for National Statistics), Peter Unwin (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister), John Middleton (Inland Revenue) and Julian Kelly (HM Treasury).

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has carried out of the prevalence in other common law countries of compulsory identity cards; and if he will list those countries that have such cards. [169912]

Mr. Browne

The Home Office carried out research into identity cards schemes in other countries. The results are in "Entitlement Cards and Identity Fraud: A Consultation Paper". Within the EU Cyprus is a common law jurisdiction which has identity cards which all Cypriot citizens over the age of 12 have to obtain.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the procedures being used to verify the identity of people taking part in the identity card pilot scheme. [170255]

Mr. Browne

The biometric enrolment pilot being run by United Kingdom Passport Service is not an identity cards pilot but rather intended to test the processes around, and user experience of biometric enrolment. Ascertaining the identities of the people taking part in the pilot is therefore much less important than ensuring that the people taking part form a representative cross-section of the UK population.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the biometric information that will be collected and stored on the(a) National Identity Register and (b) identity card. [170256]

Mr. Browne

There has been no firm decision made on the biometric data which will be collected and which biometrics will be stored on the National Identity Register and which will be stored on the identity card.

These decisions will be made in the light of work underway on the feasibility of different technologies and the processes around identity enrolment and verification.

The draft Identity Cards Bill makes provision for the recording of biometric information in the form of a head and shoulders photograph, fingerprints and data about a person's external characteristics including, in particular, the features of an iris or of any other part of the eye.

Mr. Gerald Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department why the iris has been selected as the basis for a biometric identifier. [170553]

Mr. Browne

Both retina and iris recognition were considered by the National Physical Laboratory in their evaluation of biometric technologies. Retina recognition was found to be effective but difficult to use by a large number of people and too physically intrusive to be widely acceptable.

It has not yet been decided that iris recognition will be used in the identity card scheme. The feasibility of using iris recognition for identity cards is under investigation.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for the storage of health information on(a) blood group, (b) organ donor status and (c) HIV condition on the National Identity Register on (i) a voluntary and (ii) a compulsory basis. [171597]

Mr. Browne

Clause 1 of and Schedule 1 to the draft Identity Cards Bill published on 26 April set out what information could be held on the National Identity Register. In general the storage of medical information on the Register would not be allowed by the draft Bill as medical information does not fall within the definition of registerable facts as set out in the draft Bill. However the draft Bill does allow for the storage of voluntary information with the consent of both the person who is registered and the Secretary of State.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the subsidy for the price charged for an identity card for those on low incomes will be funded. [171598]

Mr. Browne

The expectation is that when the scheme is established, running costs will be covered by charges for the application and issue of cards and for identity verification services provided by the scheme. Any subsidy for those on low incomes will therefore be funded by fee income.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 29 April 2004,Official Report, columns 1299–300W, on identity cards, if he will list the non-arrestable criminal offences, enforced by a summons, for which the police have powers of arrest where a person refuses to provide evidence of identity. [171916]

Mr. Browne

Where a constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that any offence which is not an arrestable offence has been committed or attempted, or is being committed or attempted, he may arrest the relevant person if it appears to him that service of a summons is impracticable or inappropriate because any of the general arrest conditions are satisfied.

Two of the general arrest conditions are:

1. (a) that the name of the relevant person is unknown to, and cannot be readily ascertained by, the constable; and
2. (b) that the constable has reasonable grounds for doubting whether a name furnished by the relevant person as his name is his real name.

Non-arrestable offences are all those not covered by the categories set out in Section 24 (1) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) which states: The powers of summary arrest conferred by the following subsections shall apply:

1. (a) to offences for which the sentence is fixed by law;
2. (b) to offences for which a person of 21 years of age or over (not previously convicted) may be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of five years (or might be so sentenced but for the restrictions imposed by S 33 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980); and
3. (c) to the offences listed in Schedule 1A

and in this Act 'arrestable offence' means any such offence.

The offences which are not covered by this section are too numerous to list and could be identified only and listed at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 29 April 2004,Official Report, columns 1299–300W, on identity cards, whether the police have powers to require a person to verify their identity other than those set out in his answer. [171917]

Mr. Browne

The Government have made it clear that it will not be a requirement to carry an identity card or to produce a card to a police officer on demand.

Police powers in England and Wales to identify a person arrested for a recordable offence are contained in the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) 1984. The powers will be unaffected by the introduction of an identity card however the introduction of identity cards will make it much easier and simpler for people to prove their identity when they wish to do so. As at present with existing documents, people will be free to produce an identity card on a voluntary basis (if they have one) to a police officer or to any other official as a means of establishing their identity.

The draft Identity Cards Bill published on 26 April also includes a power in clause 24 for information relating to a biometric to be disclosed if it is not reasonably practical for the person to whom this is disclosed to have obtained this information by other means. This means that if it were not possible to identify an arrested person by other means, for example by checking police records, a check could be made on the person's biometric against the National Identity Register.

In addition to powers under PACE, powers under s 41 (1) Terrorism Act 2000 allow a constable to arrest without a warrant a person whom he reasonably suspects to be a terrorist, which is defined in s 40. In this case, powers under Schedule 8, paragraph 2 permit an authorised person to take any steps which are reasonably necessary for photographing, measuring or identifying a person detained under s 41. Again, these powers will be unaffected by the introduction of an identity card but again a power is available under the draft Identity Cards Bill that would allow a check of a biometric of a person detained under this section if it were not reasonably practical for this information to be obtained by another means.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether an individual's unique learner number will be recorded in the National Identity Register under the proposal in the draft Identity Cards Bill. [171918]

Mr. Browne

Schedule 1 to the draft Identity Cards Bill published on 26 April sets out what information may be held on the National Identity Register including the personal reference numbers that may be recorded in any individual's entry. Schedule 1 does not include the unique learner number. Clause 3(4) does allow the Secretary of State to modify Schedule 1 and the information that may be held on the Register. However, any changes must be agreed by Parliament and be consistent with the statutory purposes of the scheme.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what categories of people resident in the UK for three months or more will not be eligible for the identity card proposed under the draft Identity Cards Bill. [171919]

Mr. Browne

Under Clause 2 of the draft Identity Cards Bill, all individuals over the age of 16 who are residing in the UK for longer than a prescribed period, proposed to be three months, are eligible to be entered in the National Identity Register and thereby obtain an identity card.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information will be(a) printed on the face of and (b) held but not shown on (i) the identity card proposed under the draft Identity Cards Bill, (ii) the proposed biometric passport and (iii) the proposed biometric driving licence. [171920]

Mr. Browne

The UK Passport Service is planning to implement a facial recognition image biometric in the British passport booklet during 2005. No additional data other than the digital signature which "locks" the data on to the chip will be held but not shown on the bio-data page of the passport.

There has been no firm decision made on the information which will be printed on the face of the identity card and which will be held but not shown on the card. These decisions will be made in the light of work under way on the feasibility of different technologies and analysis with key user groups of the business requirements of the scheme. These arrangements must be approved by Parliament and no information may be held unless it is required for the statutory purposes of the scheme as set out in the primary legislation.

The passport and driving licence may be designated as identity cards under the draft Identity Cards Bill. In which case these documents may require certain additional information to be included in or on the face of the document which reflects the common standards of the identity cards family. However, as set out above no firm decisions have yet been made on what these will be.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the names of people who have not applied for identity cards will be recorded on the National Identity Register(a) before and (b) after the card becomes compulsory; and whether the names of certain categories of individuals who have not applied for identity cards will be recorded. [172298]

Mr. Browne

The National Identity Register will hold information about those people who have registered and been issued with an identity card. Entries will be created as people apply for identity cards. There is no intention to record on the Register the names of people who have not yet applied for identity cards although the final decision will be made following the detailed design phase.

Clause 2(4) of the draft Identity Cards Bill does provide that in some circumstances, a person who has not applied may be entered into the Register. For example, a failed asylum seeker who has not applied for an identity card but whose information was available may be entered on the Register so that if he applies to stay in the UK again using a different identity, his previous status as a failed asylum seeker will have been recorded.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which private sector databases will be used to check identities under proposals contained in the draft Identity Card Bill. [172299]

Mr. Browne

Identity Cards: the Next Steps (CM 6020) made clear that applications for one of the family of identity cards will require checks to be made against other databases to help establish that an application for a card is genuine. Data-sharing gateways established for this purpose will be used only when processing applications for cards or related purposes (e.g. when issuing a replacement) and do not confer any general power to share data for wider purposes.

This approach to identity verification follows proposals included in the Cabinet Office study on Identity fraud (published in July 2002) which recommended greater use of biographical checks on applicants for passports and driving licences. The most effective way of confirming this biographical information is to check some of the information provided by applicants with information held on a range of Government and private sector databases. These checks could for example confirm that a person had been known by a certain identity and lived at known addresses for a number of years.

The databases that could be checked would include public sector bodies (such as the National Insurance or Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) databases) as well as private sector organisations (such as credit reference agencies or banks) but it is at this stage too early to know precisely which databases would be checked.

Information requested would be restricted to that needed to confirm the identity of an individual who has made an application to register. Clause 11 (1) and (2) of the draft Identity Cards Bill published on 26 April places a duty on a person to provide information to the Secretary of State or a designated documents authority for the purposes of verifying an individual's entry to the Register. Clause 11 (4) sets out that the requirement may be imposed on any person specified in an order subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. This means that particular gateways could be established only with the consent of Parliament and for the limited purpose of validating information on the Register.

Mr. Gibb

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list his Department's services which will have access to the National Identity Register without being named on the face of the Draft Identity Cards Bill. [173009]

Mr. Browne

Proposals to permit information held on the National Identity Register to he disclosed without an individual's consent are set out in "Legislation on Identity Cards: A Consultation" [CM6178] published on 26 April.

Clause 20(5) of the draft Identity Cards Bill published on 26 April will permit disclosure of information that does not fall within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 (access records) if it is made to a prescribed officer of the Secretary of State's department in order to carry out prescribed functions of the Secretary of State. Disclosure of information held in paragraph 9 will be permitted if it is made for purposes connected with the prevention or detection of serious crime and it is authorised under s20 (3) to (6).

Clause 20(5) will allow for disclosure of information held on the National Identity Register to other parts of Government which are the responsibility of a Secretary of State e.g. the Department of Work and Pensions, and will also include disclosure to parts of the Home Office such as the Immigration and Nationality Department (IND), subject to Parliament's consent.

At this stage, it is not possible to list the Home Department's services that may require information from the National Identity Register. In assessing whether a departmental service should be granted disclosure, we will look closely at the justification for this information. Disclosure will only be allowed to specified persons for specified purposes, Parliament's consent will be required and the disclosure arrangements will be subject to proper authorisation procedures with independent oversight.

Brian White

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research he conducted on the impact of identity theft in countries where identity cards have been introduced. [173049]

Mr. Browne

Home Office officials have had detailed discussions with colleagues involved in the operation of identity card schemes in Italy, Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands and comprehensive information has been supplied by each of the EU member states on the operation of their card schemes. Home Office officials have also liaised with colleagues involved in the operation of card schemes in Singapore and Japan and with officials in countries such as Canada, USA and Australia that do not have card schemes on emerging crime trends.

Many card schemes were developed with specific aims and objectives such as population registration and not specifically implemented for countering identity fraud. As such, many identity cards are issued locally after checking available information, for example, birth certificates and information relating to an applicant's parents. In many countries it is not necessary to give biometric information when applying for an identity card.

"Identity Cards: The Next Steps" (CM 6020) states that applications for one of the family of identity cards will require checks against other databases. These checks would confirm that a person had been known by a certain identity and lived at known addresses for a number of years. This information is more difficult to forge than birth certificates or other similar documents and follows recommendations in "Identity Fraud: A Study" conducted by the Cabinet Office and published in 2002.

Many card schemes in other countries were implemented some time ago and use mainly paper cards, which do not hold biometric data. With the passage of time, there is an increasing risk that fraudsters could obtain access to modern printing technology and use it to produce forged paper cards for the purpose of committing identity fraud. The absence of a central electronic identity register in many countries increases the risks because an identity card (or biometric data) cannot be checked against a centrally held record of that information. Organisations checking a card are therefore able only to make visual checks, for example, to check that the photograph on an identity card looks like the person presenting the card and to check for obvious signs of tampering with the card itself.

In "Identity Cards The Next Steps" the Government stated that the National Identity Register will link each individual record to a biometric. This will help to prevent multiple identities from being established and allow organisations to check a card at a level appropriate for the service they are providing.

While a modern and effective card scheme would help to combat identity fraud, it does not mean that every card scheme, especially those that have been implemented some time ago, would have a similar or significant effect on countering this type of crime unless they have been regularly updated to stay one step ahead of fraudsters. It is therefore not possible to assess the effect that other card schemes have had on identity fraud.

Mr. Oaten

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of adults whose details will appear on the National Identity Register by 2013. [172403]

Mr. Browne

We would expect that by 2013, 80 per cent. of the economically active population would be entered on the National Identity Register and therefore have an identity card. The latest figures (relating to December 2003 to February 2004) show that there are currently 29.756 million economically active people aged 16 and over in the United Kingdom, 80 per cent. of which is around 23.8 million people.