Home Affairs Select Committee report on ID cards
Labour's own Home Affairs Select Committee criticises David "Big" Blunkett's draft bill for compulsory ID cards:
'They warn that ministers are already planning to use the ID card scheme as a cover to introduce a national fingerprint system within five years.
Identities may soon be checkable on the national register from CCTV pictures, they predict.'
'The report warns that once the cards become compulsory it is conceivable that private companies will be able to demand access to the full information held on an individual on the register as a condition of providing a service. The access is "well in excess of what is justified in the fight against serious crime or terrorism"'.
-- Front page Guardian 29/7/04