24 July 2006

This morning’s announcement that the price of a passport will rise again by almost one third [1] comes as no surprise to NO2ID [2] who predicted a rise of this magnitude in a briefing during the passage of the Identity Cards Bill [3].

Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator said:

This is nothing more than a front for the introduction of the ID scheme. £15 more per person from October is just the first instalment of a plan that
will see you pay £93 or more for your passport once ID cards are introduced. The British public have already paid twice over for these so-called
‘anti-fraud’ measures.

The success of NO2ID’s ‘Renew for Freedom’ campaign [4] has obviously got the Home Office rattled. We expect tens if not hundreds of thousands more people to renew early to avoid this backdoor identity tax, and keep their personal details safe from the disaster-in-the-making that is the National Identity Register.

Our latest poll [5] shows that once people realise the ID scheme will involve compulsory interviews, support for ‘ID cards’ drops as low as 41%. The government is going to get its first taste of real public outrage when it starts interrogating people later this year.

ENDS

Notes for editors

1) ePassport fees announced – http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/6898

2) NO2ID is the UK-wide, non-partisan campaign against compulsory ID cards and the National Identity Register, see http://www.no2id.net=20

3) See attached PDF for copy of analysis, including graph of projected price rise.

4) ‘Renew for Freedom’ was launched in May 2006 with its own website at http://www.renewforfreedom.org/index.html=20

5) ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1001 adults aged 18+ by telephone between 21st-23rd July 2006. Interviews were conducted across the
country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.

“Q.2 As part of the National Identity Scheme the government has also proposed that everyone is required to attend an interview to give personal details about themselves for use by the police, tax authorities, and all other government departments. From what you have seen or heard do you think that this is…?
NET: Good idea – 41% (40.9)
NET: Bad idea – 56% (56.1)

For further information including a copy of poll data, or for immediate or future interview, please contact Phil Booth (National Coordinator,
national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974 230 839, or Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166.

12 July 2006

With the government’s ID scheme in complete disarray, civil liberties campaigners today demanded an immediate halt to all work on the programme and an explanation of the millions spent so far.

In a statement that surprises even suppliers [1] the Home Office now says that the ID programme is part of John Reid’s review of the whole Department, and that the tender process is to be delayed indefinitely [2].

Phil Booth, NO2ID [3] National Coordinator said:

The Home Office is spending £363,000 per day [4] of taxpayers’ money to come up with ever more elaborate excuses for this scheme. If Mr Reid wants to
call a proper review of the ID scheme, he should stop this haemorrhage of public cash immediately.

The ID Cards Programme Team has spent over £332 million [5] on the scheme and come up with nothing. The unit – which is projected to spend another £356
million this year [6] – should be disbanded, and all documentation produced by it and by other departments [7] should be opened to public scrutiny. After all, we paid for it.

Fiddling with the botched plans, but keeping all the draconian powers created on the back of the deception just compounds the danger to privacy and freedom. The government’s only honest option is to scrap the scheme, repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006, and actually have the debate it pretended it wanted in the light of some real facts.

- ENDS -

Notes for editors

1) ‘Reid puts the brake on ID card contracts’ by Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly:
http://www.computerweekly.com/Home/Articles/2006/07/11/216887/Reid+puts+the+brake+on+ID+card+contracts.htm

2) ‘ID scheme faces delay’ – BBC
http://www.computerweekly.com/Home/Articles/2006/07/11/216887/Reid+puts+the+brake+on+ID+card+contracts.htm

2) ‘ID scheme faces delay’ – BBC
http://www.no2id.net

4) Reported in several papers, links here:
http://www.no2id.net/news/newsblog/?p=3D364

5) Hansard, 14 Feb 2006 : Column 1876W
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent on the identity cards scheme to date.
Mr. Charles Clarke: Since the beginning of the financial year 2003-04, £332.05 million has been spent by the Identity Cards Programme up to the end of December 2005.

6) ‘ID card spending doubles to £356 million’ – Silicon.com
http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,3800010403,39158254,00.htm

7) The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is appealing against an order by the UK’s data-protection watchdog to release a secret report on the
costs, benefits and risks of introducing ID cards in the UK – http://news.zdnet.co.uk/business/0,39020645,39278268,00.htm

9 July 2006

Following devastating revelations in the Sunday Times today [1], civil liberties campaigners demanded an immediate and permanent halt to the government’s ID cards programme, and repeal of the ID legislation.

A series of e-mails [2] leaked by a senior official “close to the Treasury” confirm that the project is in melt-down, blame Tony Blair personally for the fiasco, and predict a botched introduction that “could put back the introduction of ID cards for a generation”.

Phil Booth, NO2ID [3] National Coordinator said:

This whole scheme has been built on deception. The government has systematically misled the public, bullied Parliament and anyone who dared to speak against them, and wasted tens of millions already on a scheme that officials now admit is unworkable.

Now we discover that the whole thing has been rushed, just to fit Tony Blair’s political agenda. The government’s much-hailed ‘gold standard’ of ID is a complete sham.

NO2ID said all along that the goal was not the cards, but the database at the heart of the system. The Identity Cards Act is still far too dangerous to leave on the statute books, because it still empowers a control-freak fantasy of running our lives by database. Now the fraud is revealed, it must be repealed.

- ENDS -

Notes for editors

1) ‘ID cards doomed, say officials’ by David Leppard in The Sunday Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2262437_1,00.html

2) E-mail exchange between Peter Smith, acting commercial director at the Identity and Passport Service and David Foord, ID card project director at the Office of Government Commerce: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2261631,00.html

3) NO2ID is the UK-wide, non-partisan campaign against compulsory ID cards and the National Identity Register, see http://www.no2id.net