The Prime Minister Gordon Brown said plans to introduce
compulsory UK ID cards will "move ahead" despite recent scandals
over the loss of personal data.
He said Parliament would decide on making the card compulsory
after the government had examined how the initial voluntary system
had worked, during his first Prime Minister's Questions session of
2008.
"It is the Government's policy to move ahead with this, but
subject to a vote of Parliament, and depending on how the voluntary
scheme works," said the Prime Minister.
Conservative leader David Cameron said that it was
completely unsafe to trust the Government with any more of the
public's identity information following the losses of 25 million
child benefit records, and the further loss of the details of three
million learner drivers.
ID cards are intended to protect people's
identity by using biometric data, such as fingerprints, so that
use of the information cannot be triggered other than by the facial
or fingerprint data held on the card.
Phil Booth, national coordinator of the campaign group NO2ID
cards, said in a
blog posting that adding biometrics to a computer record will
not protect the information. It is one more thing to be lost. When
your fingerprints are lost or copied, you cannot be issued with new
fingerprints, like a new password or Pin.