Embargoed until 00:01 Monday 25th January 2010

The Home Office today announces that young people in London may enroll in its National Identity Scheme from February 8th, suggesting that it offers a ‘convenient’ form of proof of age. NO2ID [1] suggests that targetting London’s young is even less likely to achieve wide use than the heavily promoted pilot in Manchester [2].

Phil Booth, National Coordinator of NO2ID said:

If it were not for the sinister consequences for anyone foolish
enough to be a guinea pig, this would be ludicrous as well as
wasteful.

You can spend £10 on a proof-of-age card from an independent charity with no other commitment; or you can pay £30 now, be fingerprinted, and agree to account for your personal details to the Home Office for the rest of your life. The government believes you will choose the second, and is spending £230,000 of taxpayers money a day [3] on that basis.

-ENDS-

Notes for editors:

[1] NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and
the database state.
See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate for a list of ‘database state’ initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing, and
http://www.no2id.net/datasharing for how it all fits together.
NO2ID’s ‘Don’t be a guinea-pig’ campaign is at: http://www.no2id.net/idcardcon/

[2] See, ‘Hundreds of ID cards taken up in NW England,’ BBC 21 Jan 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8472030.stm
The Home Office claims that, ‘A total of 2,700 identity cards are now
in circulation in Manchester and the North West.’ In Greater Manchester alone there are more than 3,000 births a month.

[3] See, ‘ID cards to go on sale for the first time in Manchester,’ The Times 17 Nov 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6919333.ece

For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact:
Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net) on
07974 230 839
Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308 (Central London)
Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166

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