Scorched earth policy continues

It used to be said that: no government can bind its successor. This is no longer true. By signing contracts for expensive schemes, many years into the future, Labour is ensuring that the costs of unpopular schemes will continue to haunt future governments.

ZDNet reports that IBM's contract to administer the National Biometric Identity Service (NBIS) database, which will hold identifying information such as facial images and fingerprints, is to run for seven years. The NBIS is used for biometric passports and for the National Identity Register (NIR), which will be used in issuing ID cards under the government scheme.

We are not sure whether the Conservatives will want the biometric passports that contain fingerprints. Mr Grayling says he is not sure about this. These type of passports, despite Labour's spin, are NOT mandatory under (ICAO) international aviation regulations. The ones we have at present containing a machine-readable chip are totally legal.

The Conservatives and Lib Dems have pledged to scrap the NIR and ID cards but it seems that Labour are determined to use a 'scorched earth' policy and make cancelling the scheme extremely expensive.

Biometric confusion.

Both the Lib Dems and Tories have been making promising noises regarding the National Identity Register (NIR).The Register has an interesting discussion on some aspects of the NIR/ID/passport debate relating to the three main parties and also how confusing the subject is and that's not just for the politicians!

The passports we have containing a chip are called 'biometric' passports even though they do not contain any biometric data other than a photo. Under ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) rules, the passports we have at present are satisfactory. Also, as we have an opt out from EU asylum and immigration rules, we can manage as we are. Hence we need to have clear information from both the Lib Dems and the Conservatives as to their intentions regarding the passport database.

According to Labour, most of the cost of the ID scheme is accounted for by the switchover to biometric passports, and a National Identity Register-type database will need to be retained in order to store the personal data necessary to operate biometric passports. The addition of fingerprints, says Labour, is necessary in order to fulfil our international obligations. But this would appear not to be true.

Chris Grayling has expressed the intention to collect the minimum of data necessary for a passport application, andwould appear to be retaining the option to back out of collecting fingerprints.Mr Grayling said: "Clearly, data collection will be necessary for biometric passports" and The Register interprets for us that when Grayling says "the biometric passport option" he actually means the revision 2 biometric passport with the addition of fingerprint biometrics. He hasn't got properly on top of what a biometric passport is, but that's the case with most MPs (and me!)

In March, a LibDem position paper said "The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) only requires that passports are machine readable and contain a facial image. Liberal Democrats would... adhere to the ICAO standards." Now Chris Huhne seems to be talking about fingerprints in passports but not on a database.

Nonetheless, at least both the Tories and Lib Dems are talking about scrapping the NIR and appear to be strongly against data sharing. So it's hurrah for the time being.

Meanwhile our increasingly irrelevant Parliament approved fines of up to £1,000 for those who fail to tell the passport and identity service of changes in their personal details including address, name, nationality and gender.

National Programme for IT (NPfIT)

ZDNet reports that doctors have voted in favour of an independent review of the £12.7 billion NHS National Programme for IT. Members of the British Medical Association (BMA) have supported a motion calling for a review of the entire programme led by Connecting for Health.

The proposer of the motion condemned the continuing waste of money on the national programme and said that most of its applications were not working successfully and were delayed.

Doctors also supported a motion that GPs should retain their role as holders of patient medical records. They feel this is fundamental to maintaining confidentiality, and that the opt-in approach to the Care Record Service will help patients to understand the implications of any transfer of their data. As a result the BMA hopes to campaign for local IT solutions for the NHS.

Have you opted out yet? Let your GP know your views and ensure your records are not uploaded to a national database without your permission.

Full steam ahead!

Hansard reports yesterday's debate on ID cards.

Alan Johnson spoke in positively messianic mode regarding the benefits of ID cards saying that he was:
"more convinced than ever that the national identity service is a sane and rational policy that needs to be implemented rather than scrapped, and accelerated rather than delayed".
Part of his amendment to the Conservative motion to scrap ID cards follows:

“...accepts that a universally accepted biometric passport or identity card linked to a national identity register will help secure the identity of an individual and reduce the incidence of multiple identity fraud; further recognises that for certain groups, including young people, an identity card will enable them to provide proof of age and more broadly enable people to travel throughout Europe..... there will be a choice between identity cards and biometric passports; and notes the fact that any decision on whether membership of the scheme should be compulsory would require further legislation.”

The shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling was definite about the National Identity Register:

The truth is that the national identity register establishes a level of data collection that goes far beyond anything that has ever been required for passports or that even needs to be required for a system of biometric passports. It remains our intention... not to proceed with the national identity register. One of the first acts of an incoming Conservative Government will be to cancel the ID scheme. The scheme and the register are an affront to British liberty.

He did not rule out biometric passports and the data collection necessary for these whereas Chris Huhne said:

I am not sure that I would accept that it is necessary to store biometric data. After all, the document would have the biometric data and it is an additional guarantee of veracity. Why is it necessary to go one step further and store it centrally?

Meanwhile Alan Johnson has asked the UK Border Agency to look at speeding up the issuing of identity cards to foreign nationals here and it would appear that this has the approval of the other main parties.

This government has previously stated that: Designation is not the same as ‘compulsion’ as there is no penalty if someone chooses not to apply for a designated document.

However, once one has applied one cannot 'deregister' and failure to update your details could result in swingeing fines; there's a certain Catch 22 element to all this. Perhaps this is why statutory instruments relating to the scheme,which were due to be debated this week, have now been postponed?

The last words go to Alan Johnson stating that our lack of ID cards:

.. puts us in stark contrast to other European countries, most of which have a central and secure way of registering and tracking people’s identity. Identity cards do not create or extend the Big Brother society; they are an attempt to control it. (Laughter.)

Intercept Modernisation Programme

Please take a moment to give your views to the government regarding the Intercept Modernisation Programme. The consultation link is here. You only have until 20th July 2009
Here are a few criticisms of the programme:

# The plans are thought to involve spending £2bn on paying ISPs to install deep packet inspection equipment within their own networks, and obliging them to perform the cross-correlation and profiling of their users' behaviour.

# About 40 per cent of ISPs at say they do not currently have the capability to store the data. Hence costs will rise.

# "It is a hallmark of free societies that whilst the police target criminal suspects, government does not monitor the entire population."
Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti.

# "Officials from dozens of departments and quangos could know what you read online, and who all your friends are, who you emailed, when, and where you were when you did so - all without a warrant. ...Tracking your your every move is more efficiently creepy than reading your letters."
Guy Herbert, general secretary of NO2ID.

# Both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives have voiced their opposition to the idea so it would be best not to proceed in the current financial climate until the next election.

# "deep packet inspection is the electronic equivalent of opening people's mail. This is very important to me, as what is at stake is the integrity of the internet as a communications medium, clearly we must not interfere with the internet, and we must not snoop on the internet."
Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Inventor of the internet.)

# The collection and searching of information on all telephone calls, texts, emails and web-browsing will be accessible to dozens of organisations without a warrant.


To respond to the consultation, you can email communicationsdataconsultation@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk
or send your response by post to:

Nigel Burrowes
Communications Data Consultation
Room P.5.37
Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF

Remember, this consultation ends on 20 July 2009.

DNA consultation

Please take a few moments to reply to the government's DNA database consultation before 7th August 2009.

This consultation intends to promote public debate on how long we should retain fingerprints and DNA.

Here are a few ideas that you could use:

# Figures show that for the past six years the number of crimes solved using DNA evidence has remained static at about one in 300 of all recorded crimes. Over the same period the number of people on the national DNA database more than doubled in size from 1.9million people to 4.1million. A smaller database would be much cheaper and also more effective.

# The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against retention of the DNA of innocent people.

# It is disrespectful to Parliament that plans for the police to keep innocent people's DNA profiles for up to 12 years may become law without a Commons vote. The use of a 'statutory instrument' to get this through Parliament is undemocratic.

# The UK has the largest national DNA database of any country in the world. Over 7% of the British population has a profile on the national database, compared to 1% of Austrians and 0.5% of Americans.

# The numbers of profiles stored are now so large that 'false positives' have become a statistical probability.

# Over 800,000 children have their profiles stored.

You can email your response to DNAconsultation@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

Or write to:

Alan Brown
DNA Consultations
Police Powers and Protection Unit,
4th Floor, Peel Building,
2 Marsham Street,
London SW1P 4DF

This consultation closes on 7 August 2009

Lobby your MP now

The Conservatives have called for a debate on ID cards this Monday 6th July. Key statutory instruments required before the scheme can proceed have still to be laid before Parliament. See the Public register.

As part of the initial proposals for the NIS, applicants for the new generation of biometric passports – due to be available by 2011 – would have their personal data placed on the NIR. Applicants could also then choose to have an ID card, but their refusal would not mean the removal of their data from the NIR.

Parliament is expected, this week and next, to approve this retention proposal in two batches of draft legislation. They would provide the Home Office with the powers to make the passport a "designated document" under the NIS. This would make its data eligible for entry onto the NIR.

The regulations may also include powers to levy a fine of up to £1,000 on those who fail to tell the authorities of a change of address or amend other key personal details such as a change of name within three months.

Isabella Sankey, director of policy at Liberty, complained that the NIS is still compulsory in practice:

"However you spin it, big ears, four legs and a long trunk still make an elephant. And this white elephant would be as costly to privacy and race equality as to our purses."

It would be well worth telling your MP your views regarding the National Identity Register and the ID card scheme before this debate. Please contact your MP now.