Home Secretary: controversial ID cards programme 'not dead'

Home Secretary Alan Johnson today insisted that the ID Cards programme was not dead despite ruling out making them compulsory.

Under pressure in the Commons today following last week's climbdown, Mr Johnson said: "We haven't scrapped cards, what we are doing is accelerating their introduction".

Mr Johnson has abandoned plans to make the controversial documents compulsory for airside personnel in two airport trials but Tories today pressed him to axe the scheme entirely.

And Labour backbencher Andrew Mackinlay (Thurrock) said Mr Johnson was presiding over the "denouement of a failed policy".

Later today the issue will be the subject of a Tory-led debate. At question time shadow immigration minister Damian Green claimed ID cardholders would be liable to pay penalties for failing to keep authorities informed of changes in their personal information.

He asked: "If it's a voluntary card why are there penalties attached for failing to provide that information?"

Mr Johnson said the Tories had adopted a "nonsensical position".

Last week, in his first major policy decision since his appointment less than a month ago, Mr Johnson said the cards would always be voluntary for British nationals.

Foreign nationals who live in the UK will still be required to carry a card.

But in a significant victory for trade unions, the 20,000 "airside" workers at Manchester and London City airports will not be required to hold the cards by law.

In the Commons Mr Johnson said there was a "consistent level of support" for the National Identity Service.

"We have received over 1,000 letters from the public about identity cards, more than 60% of these were in support including many asking how to apply for an identity card," he told MPs.

But he was mocked by Tory Philip Davies (Shipley) who said: "It seems now that the Home Secretary says that he is scrapping compulsory identity cards because they are popular with the public."

Arguments that the cards would help tackle crime and prevent terrorism were "totally spurious," he added.

Mr Johnson said: "We haven't scrapped cards, what we are doing is accelerating their introduction.

"We planned to sign a medium-term contract next year, we are now going to sign it in the autumn.

"We planned to trial this in Manchester this year, we are now going to trial it across the whole of the north-west.

"We planned just to trial it airside at London City Airport, we are now going to trial it throughout London.

"It will be welcomed by the public, already we have applications for cards and we haven't even begun the process of distributing them."

Mr Johnson played down claims about the savings that could be made from dropping the plans.

"This idea that you will halve the national debt by abolishing ID cards is just simply ludicrous.

"The amount of money that you will have to spend in a scheme where the recipients and beneficiaries of identity cards will pay for them is very small."

"Scrapping now will gain very little and waste an awful lot."

Labour's David Winnick (Walsall N), a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said: "Isn't the whole idea of British citizens having such a card simply distasteful?"

As Mr Johnson pointed out that they had a voluntary card system in France, Mr Winnick pointed out "but that's the Continent".

Mr Mackinlay told Mr Johnson: "A lot of people will sympathise with you because you are having to cope with the denouement of failed policy."

He called for the Home Secretary to tell Parliament he was abandoning the "silly idea".

Mr Johnson told him: "I fundamentally disagree with you. We are committed to a biometric passport. We said in 2007, the Prime Minister said when he came into office that passport could be used as an identity card."

The ID Card could be used as a cheaper alternative to the passport for travel in Europe and proving identity.

Revellers could use it to prove their age to buy drink because "thousands" of passports were lost on Friday and Saturday nights in city centres across the country.

Mr Green said a statutory instrument to be debated today would set penalties for failing to keep details up to date.

He asked: "If it's a voluntary card, why are there penalties attached for failing to provide that information?

"What does voluntary mean in this context?"

He asked whether someone who volunteers for an ID card could opt-out at a later date.

"If you can, then these penalties are pointless and if you can't then you should come clean and tell people that if you volunteer once it's then compulsory for the rest of your life."

Mr Johnson said: "I do think this is a nonsensical position by the Opposition front bench."

Under present rules, failing to inform the Passport Office of changes could incur a fine, he said.

"We want to ensure that the people receiving passports are the people who say they want those passports.

"This nonsense of the Opposition suddenly turning into civil libertarians, which was news to many of us; this nonsense that it is somehow 1984 and an Orwellian concept would be a complete mystery to 24 of the 27 European Union states who have identity cards."

Isabella Sankey, policy director at pressure group Liberty, said: "The Home Secretary is paying the price of a climbdown without reaping the benefits of really thinking again.

"If ID cards are to be truly voluntary, entry onto the Identity Register must not be compulsory for those applying for passports."