The government has revealed that tens of thousands of
businesses will be accredited to make identity checks on customers
and employees, should ID cards be introduced as planned in
2007.
Documents released by the Home Office last week predicted that
44,000 businesses and 256 government bodies would be given rights
to check individuals' details against a national population
database.
Officials conceded, however, that the figure was probably a
"significant underestimate" and that in practice many more firms
would be licensed to use ID cards to verify identities.
"We do not have a definitive list of applications but there are
numerous situations were individuals are required to prove their
IDs; for example, in banks, doctors' surgeries, retailers for proof
of age, and any situation where you would be required to prove who
your are," said a Home Office spokeswoman.
The Home Office revealed this week that it would not make it
compulsory for employers to carry out biometric checks on staff to
verify their eligibility to work, and it would not charge
businesses to make the checks.
The news will be welcomed by smaller firms, for whom the
biometric readers could prove expensive. According to initial Home
Office estimates, readers could cost between £250 and £750.
Instead, Home Office officials are considering introducing a
mobile phone-based system that would allow small businesses to
verify that ID cards are genuine by texting the card details to the
ID database and asking the card holder to type in a Pin.
However, the strategy has been questioned by some commentators,
who suggested it weakened the government's claims that ID cards
would stop illegal working.
"A Pin is not secure. If people are trying to get work
illegally, they can easily pass the same card around if they look
vaguely like the photograph. I am not sure it is fit for purpose,"
said cross-bench peer Lord Errol.
David Lacey, director of security at the Post Office and
chairman of the ID cards private sector working group, said that in
practice many businesses would choose to verify identities of staff
and customers by checking Pins in a card reader rather than taking
fingerprints or iris scans.
"There are different levels of use of the verification. It will
cost more, take longer and you would have to be accredited to a
higher level of security to do the maximum level of checks," he
said.
The Post Office has a network of 30,000 card readers, which
could be used to make simple checks on the authenticity of an ID
card without resorting to biometrics, and retailers could do the
same, said Lacey.
But businesses might choose to take biometric readings of staff
employed in sensitive roles, for example, in finance or defence
industries, he said.
Members of the private sector ID cards working group, which
include Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Royal Mail, are evaluating
how ID cards could help businesses.
However, Lacey said, "This is still a long way off for
businesses. It is way beyond their business planning. All we can do
is look at this as something that has potential, is coming our way
and we think is inevitable."
More biometric trials >>
ID card contracts to be split into work
programmes
Application enrolment and maintenance
services
Will allow people to apply for ID cards and
enrol their biometrics through a national network of enrolment
centres and mobile units. Will cater for 10 million enrolments per
year.
National identity register
Provision of datacentre service, hosting services, verification
services and secure access services. Database will hold 100 million
registration records.
Identity services
Services to validate
authenticity of ID cards, and in exceptional circumstances
establishing an identity by searching the biometric database.
Includes provision of secure network, a unit to sell ID services to
businesses. It is predicted there will be 163 million identity
transactions year.
Corporate services
Services to support procurement of systems, in-house operations,
outsourcing of services, and shared services. Includes human
resources, finance and procurement support, administration IT
services, business administration services, legal and policy,
security and fraud services.