HM Revenue and Customs

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Foreign and Commonwealth Office – in the House of Commons at 3:31 pm on 20 November 2007.

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Photo of Alistair Darling Alistair Darling The Chancellor of the Exchequer 3:31, 20 November 2007

For the reason that ID cards match up biometric information with the information that is held, so that the person holding the information knows that the person asking for it is legally entitled to it. That is the difference between many other systems, which do not have that biometric lock, and the ID card system, which would have that biometric lock. It seems to me that that would give me and the hon. Gentleman, as individuals, far more protection than there is at the moment.

Annotations

Nicholas Millman
Posted on 21 Nov 2007 5:48 pm (Report this annotation)

That does not answer the question and is irrelevant to the concern. Biometric safeguards will not guarantee the security of personal data held in a government database. That is dependent on the civil servants who administer it and have access to it. The public can have absolutely no confidence in a government that has a track record of failure in policy and procurement for managing personal data and a track record of incompetence in supervising those who administer the data. The starting point for the government should be the restitution of the rights, freedoms and liberties once enjoyed by those it governs, especially the right to privacy. The response by Mr Darling also pre-supposes, perhaps a considerable leap of faith given the government's recent record in procuring IT systems, that the system will actually work as designed. Given the incredible mismanagement associated with recent government IT schemes, are we really expected to share this confidence?

Richard Dixon
Posted on 21 Nov 2007 6:28 pm (Report this annotation)

May I endorse the comments made by Mr Millman. I make the point that irrespective of the ability of government to protect (or otherwise) the privacy of its citizens, ID cards will be an unwarranted intrusion into civil liberty and hence the entire project should be immediately terminated.