ID cards scope creep (a good week to bury bad news)

[ploder]

During the MP expenses furore last week 4 draft orders were quietly being laid before Parliament relating to the ID cards system with a promise of more to come. As with the Lisbon Treaty the orders can only be understood with a copy of the ID cards Act 2006 in front of you:
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/ukpga_20060015_en_1

It is important to realise that if you sign up for an ID card (or one of the new biometric passports from a certain date) you are creating a new legal identity on the NIR subject to the terms already laid out by the above law and those terms may change at any time in the future (as seen from these draft orders) As should be apparent the 'front end' (piece of plastic ID card or passport) won't change the fact that your info is going to the same place. They are being deliberately woven together so that your chances of ending up on the NIR for your 'voluntary' ID card are going to be quite high.

I see a couple of newspapers spotted this but restricted themselves to only the point about Taxman snooping:

taxman allowed access to personal data
http://tinyurl.com/qnkd8m

Taxman can use database of ID cards to track our spending habits and bank accounts
http://tinyurl.com/p6nqma

There is far more to this story than that. If you want to see how scope creep works and how the ID cards system will be gradually foisted upon us then read my non-exhaustive summary below.

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Designation) Order 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479056_en_1

Criminal record check certificates for those seeking airside passes fall into the category of documents that the Secretary of State (sofs) can require your entry into the ID cards database. This is along with categories of documents used by Ministers and government departments already. So for example the sofs can designate a certain category of documents that if you have authority to handle you must be registered in the database (like a tightening noose).

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Provision of Information without Consent) Regulations 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479063_en_1

Elaborates on certain situations in which government departments will be given access to the info in your identity profile (apart from audit trail) without your consent.

Just the key points here. Amongst others these bodies will have access to your information without consent for:

HM Revenue and Customs

- National security matters.
- Prevention/detection of crime.
- Prevention/detection/investigation of matters they can impose penalties.
- Matters related to national insurance incl. numbers.

Home office

- Almost everything relating to passports.
- Almost everything relating to immigration, asylum and nationality.
- The prevention and detection of crime/national security.

Ministry of Justice

- Helping those imprisoned abroad.
- In enforcing certain court judgments.

Department for Transport

-All those matters relating to the licensing of drivers and vehicles.
-All those matters relating to enforcement powers under merchant shipping.

Department for Work and Pensions

-Investigating, preventing detecting or prosecuting people for social security offences.

These are so broad that they will effectively be able to justify access without consent in most cases if they want to. In addition data sharing has been increased so that information that would have been provided to the police/security services for example, can be given to someone else who has been authorised and is of a certain rank without your consent.

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Information and Code of Practice on Penalties) Order 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479087_en_1

Adds referees on ID card/designated document application to the already voluminous set of registrable information in Schedule 1
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/ukpga_20060015_en_5#sch1

Also adds:

- Department for Work and Pensions
- Department for Transport
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland)
- HM Revenue and Customs
- Registrar General for England and Wales
- Registrar General for Scotland
- Registrar General for Northern Ireland
- Any credit reference agency which is being contracted for supply of information under the ID cards Act by sofs.

To those bodies the sofs can require to relinquish information for your identity profile.

Chief police officers to access your info without consent when identifying victims of fatalities/human illness/injury.

The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Fees) Regulations 2009
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2009/draft/ukdsi_9780111479070_en_1

- An application entered on the NIR will cost ?30
- An ID card will cost ?30

A Code of Practice on civil penalties was also released.

Code of Practice on Civil Penalties
http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/code_practice_civil_penalties_2009.pdf

- Confirms that the maximum fine will be set at ?1,000.
- Reiterates that deliberate or reckless provision of false information is a criminal offence under section 28 of the Act with a maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment.

A choice quote: