Following NO2ID's warning over clauses in the Coroners and Justice Bill (see below), the Bill was debated in Parliament. Ben Russell, writing in the Independent, reported:
Dominic Grieve, the shadow Justice Secretary, said the plans would “drive a coach and horses through the traditional relationship between the state and individuals” to serve a “nebulous case of public good”. He warned that the Bill would allow ministers to share medical records with organisations that had no link to people’s health.
Mr Grieve said that clauses “tucked away” at the back of the Bill would give ministers “carte blanche to expand data sharing between officials across Whitehall, with local authorities and even with companies in the private sector”. He added: “This should be done with great caution and should not be open sesame to a vast increase in government power.”
David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, said the data-sharing proposals were “outrageous”. He said: “These provisions will allow all the restriction on data sharing in the ID Cards Act to be overridden and drive a coach and horses through all other restrictions on medical and DNA records. These plans are not confined to government departments and other public authorities. They would allow unlimited data sharing between private sector organisations and government and the private sector, whether in this country or abroad.”
A NEW PARLIAMENTARY BATTLE - URGENT LOCAL GROUPS ACTION REQUIRED
This is one of the most serious threats to our liberty and privacy we've yet seen.
The government is trying to remove all limits on the use of our private information by officials. This means taking your information from anywhere and passing it anywhere they like - including medical records, financial records, communications data, ID information.
The Database State is now a direct threat, not a theory.
Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, due for its first debate in the Commons on Monday 26th January, would convert the Data Protection Act into its exact opposite. It would allow ministers to make 'Information Sharing Orders', that can alter any Act of Parliament and cancel all rules of confidentiality in order to allow information obtained for one purpose to be used for another.
This single clause is as grave a threat to privacy as the entire ID Scheme.
Combine it with the index to your life formed by the planned National Identity Register and everything recorded about you anywhere could be accessible to any official body.
Quite apart from the powers in the Identity Cards Act, if Information Sharing Orders come to pass, they could (for example) immediately be used to suck up material such as tax records or electoral registers to build an early version of the National Identity Register.
But the powers would apply to any information, not just official information. They would permit data trafficking between government agencies and private companies - and even with foreign governments.
THIS IS WHY WE MUST ACT NOW!
We need you to do three things:
1) Please write straightaway IN YOUR OWN WORDS to your MP via www.WriteToThem.com - do it this weekend, if not before. The Bill is being rushed through Parliament, even as we write.
Ask your MP to read Part 8 (clauses 151 - 154) of the Coroners and Justice Bill and to oppose the massive enabling powers in the "Information sharing" clause. The Bill contains a number of controversial provisions, but to the casual reader it appears mainly to be about reforming inquests and sentencing. It is due its Second Reading in the Commons on 26th January 2009.
Request your MP to demand that the clause be given proper Parliamentary scrutiny. This is something that will affect every single one of their constituents, unlike the rest of the Bill. There is a grave danger that the government will set a timetable that will cut off debate before these proposals - which are at the end of the Bill - are discussed.
2) Write letters to your local papers. Highlight the fact that the information sharing powers in this Bill are overwhelmingly unpopular.
A YouGov poll in the Sunday Times on 18th January (details here: forum.no2id.net/viewtopic.php?p=100808) shows that the public opposes these new powers by a factor of 3 to 1 against - 65% of people asked said they would give government "too much power", only 19% thought not.
The government can't pretend a popular mandate for what it is doing. And it is a mechanism designed to bypass Parliament in future. It is being done only for the convenience of the bureaucrats.
3) Tell as many people and other groups (local political parties, union branches, the WI, churches, mosques, temples, etc.) as you can. And find out more yourself. We have created a new page on the website dedicated to 'data sharing' which contains links to the key documents and a brief explanation of each.
Please read it, and pass on the link: www.no2id.net/datasharing.php.
Let your friends, family, colleagues and anyone who might share our concerns know that the battle for their privacy is happening NOW. The more people we reach, the more we hope will act.
We really can't afford not to win. Good luck!
Matilda Mitford (NO2ID Local Groups Coordinator)
Phil Booth (NO2ID National Coordinator)
From the Independent:
Sweeping new powers allowing personal information about every citizen to be handed over to government agencies faced condemnation yesterday amid warnings that Britain is experiencing the greatest threats to civil rights for decades.
Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the pressure group Liberty, warned that the laws, published yesterday, were among a string of measures that amounted to a "terrifying" assault on traditional freedoms.
Proposals in the Coroners and Justice Bill include measures to authorise ministers to move huge amounts of data between government departments and other agencies and public bodies. Bodies that hold personal information include local councils, the DVLA, benefits offices and HM Revenue and Customs.
The Bill will allow ministers to use data-sharing orders to overturn strict rules that require information to be used only for the purpose it was taken. But it places no limit on the information that could eventually be shared between public bodies, potentially allowing vast amounts of personal data to be shared by officials across Whitehall, agencies or other public bodies.
To read NO2ID's response to the Bill click here.
According to Scottish Television:
Education bosses have been condemned for trying to force pupils in secondary schools to carry ID cards by refusing to serve them school dinners if they do not have one.
Scottish Borders Council has told parents that pupils who do not have the electronic microchipped National Entitlement Card (NEC) will not be served in the school canteen.
Campaigners claim that this is a “back door” strategy to impose the Home Office’s National Identity Register on people in Scotland.
The Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant, according to the Times.
The articles goes on:
"The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room.
"Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging."
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, the human rights group, said she would challenge the legal basis of the move. “These are very intrusive powers – as intrusive as someone busting down your door and coming into your home,” she said.
“The public will want this to be controlled by new legislation and judicial authorisation. Without those safeguards it’s a devastating blow to any notion of personal privacy.”
She said the move had parallels with the warrantless police search of the House of Commons office of Damian Green, the Tory MP: “It’s like giving police the power to do a Damian Green every day but to do it without anyone even knowing you were doing it.”
Thanks to Andy.
In his most scathing attack yet on the proposed communications superdatabase, former Director of Public Prosecutions Sir Ken Macdonald has told the Guardian that government assurances on security would prove worthless and warned that a ‘hellhouse’ of personal private information would be created. The cost to the taxpayer could be as high as £12bn, twice the cost of the national ID card scheme.
In a consultation paper to be published next month, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith will outline plans to invite the private sector to manage and run the database that will keep track of everyone’s phone calls, emails, texts and internet use. The paper follows on from Ms Smith’s October announcement to postpone the database legislation to allow her to set out proposals for the protection of civil liberties
Mr Macdonald told the Guardian: "The tendency of the state to seek ever more powers of surveillance over its citizens may be driven by protective zeal. But the notion of total security is a paranoid fantasy which would destroy everything that makes living worthwhile. We must avoid surrendering our freedom as autonomous human beings to such an ugly future. We should make judgments that are compatible with our status as free people."
You can read the full story here.
At the end of November, the first of seven centres due to issue 'ID cards for foreign nationals' opened for business. Birmingham NO2ID wrote a letter to local newspapers, signed by a broad range of politicans, to draw attention to what was going on.
Dear Editor
You may be aware that from this month the government begins issuing what it calls, with an obvious nasty spin, ‘ID cards for foreigners’. You may not be aware what this means for Birmingham. First affected will be students and those marrying Britons. The plan is that gradually residents from outside Europe will be fingerprinted and have to account for their movements. (Later, so would we all.)
Successful foreigners such as Randy Learner or Brad Friedel and the overseas students at Birmingham’s universities have a lot of choice where they study or exercise their talents. Some will decide Britain has become too unfriendly. When the US introduced more hostile visa conditions three or four years ago, the numbers applying to study there fell by 15% and Bill Gates complained that Microsoft could no longer hire some of the best software engineers.
If this scheme is continued it will lead to less fee-income and lower international status for Birmingham. British students will have to pay higher tuition to make up, and will have less money to spend with local businesses. Fewer of the world's star performers in every field will choose to make their homes here than do now.
We, the undersigned, value the contribution that these gifted people currently make to our institutions and our society. We think our country should treat them as guests, not criminal suspects. ‘ID cards for foreigners’ is not just a small-minded slogan – Birmingham will suffer culturally and economically.
Yours faithfully
Lorely Burt MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
John Hemming MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Dr Lynne Jones MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Andrew Mitchell MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Clare Short MP
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Councillor Matt Bennett
c/o Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB
Councillor Iain Bowen
15 Coppice Oaks, Birmingham, B13 9DP
Councillor Gareth Compton
c/o Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB
Councillor Alistair Dow
c/o Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB
Councillor Jerry Evans
67 Dovey Road, Birmingham, B13 9NT
Councillor Roger Harmer
71 Oak Farm Road, Birmingham, B30 1ET
Councillor Colin Hughes
172 Daisy Farm Road, Birmingham, B14 4QQ
Councillor Jon Hunt
52 Perry Avenue, Birmingham, B42 2NE
Councillor David Osborne
27 Elan Road, Birmingham, B31 5EP
Councillor David Radcliffe
46 Regent Street, Birmingham, B30 2LG
Councillor Peter Smallbone
c/o Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB
Councillor Robert Wright
c/o Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB
Councillor Salma Yaqoob
c/o Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham, B1 1BB
Felicity Norman, Prospective MEP, Green Party
c/o West Midlands Green Party
NO2ID has launched a video dramatising some of the dangers of the ID scheme and in particular the national register. The advert is available from:
uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v1JqlvnZANA
www.no2id.net/TakeJane
Please forward the links to anyone you think may be interested.
Defying the icy cold weather, NO2ID Coventry Co-ordinator Claire Boylan and her fellow supporters were joined by two members of the Birmingham group when they set up a stall in their first attempt to give Coventry residents the chance to say no to ID. Birmingham’s co-ordinator Michelle Graham and assistant co-ordinator Ghiyas Somra lent an experienced hand in doling out NO2ID leaflets and pointing people to the petition.
Early Christmas shoppers were keen to add their names to the petition calling for the card and its underlying database to be scrapped, telling the campaigners that they were not happy for this or any other government to be allowed to snoop on every citizen in the country. Privacy seemed to trump cost on the list of priorities expressed by those signing the petition, though at £93 per card this was also a big factor.
By the end of the day, Christine, Phil, Claire, Ghiyas and Ron [not pictured] had collected 65 signatures – a massive success on their first outing. Well done Coventry and thanks too to Nikki who brought free coffee and biscuits.
The Independent reports that the Data Communications Bill has been dropped from the Queen's Speech, which outlines the government's legislative plans for the coming parliamentary year.
The paper notes that:
The Home Office has been stung by the strength of opposition. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, has condemned it as a "step too far" while Lord Carlile of Berriew, the Government's terrorism watchdog, said it was "awful" as a "raw idea".
Some ministers are also worried about the wisdom of pressing ahead with the measures in the face of public hostility to the scheme, particularly in the light of a succession of embarrassing data losses by the Government.
Thanks to Andy.
The next NO2ID Birmingham meeting will be on Thursday 27 November at 7:30pm. As usual, we'll be meeting in the Boardroom at Bennett's Bar.
On the BBC News website:
Women who change their name after marriage could face fines of up to £1,000 if they fail to tell the government, under new proposals.
Anyone with a biometric passport or ID card will be required to notify the National Identity Register of changes to the personal data it holds.
The £30 fixed fee for an ID card is likely to rise after 2010, draft laws published earlier also reveal.
Birmingham NO2ID took to the streets of Redditch to make the case against ID cards in Jacqui Smith's constituency. With local journalists reporting on the event and the town's Conservative party spokesperson lending a hand, the stall was a massive success.
The group gathered 86 signatures on the petition, which was a massive spur of encouragement for what was an icy cold day of campaigning.
Ghiyas Somra, Birmingham's Assistant Co-ordinator said: " I think people realise that spending £20 billion on this scheme in today's economic climate just isn't worth it."
Tory Party spokesperson for Redditch Karen Lumley said: "I was delighted to see so many people signing up to the NO2ID campaign. We have seen again this week data being lost and many people are unsure how exactly an ID card they are going to have to pay for is going to make this country safer."
Karen Lumley, Tory Party spokesperson for Redditch, joins Gill, Steve W, Lesley and Ghiyas. Also there on the day: Steve A, Kelvin, Anthony, Jennie, Andy M and Michelle.
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