Oppose ID cards

Speech by Stephen Cooksey delivered to Surrey CC introducing the ID cards motion (extracts) on Tue 25th Nov 2008

The basis of this motion will not be unfamiliar to many members of this Council. It reflects policies adopted nationally by both the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives and similar motions that have already been approved by at least 3 Surrey Districts - Spelthorne, Mole Valley and Guildford -unanimously in each case. It is therefore important, in my view, for members of this Council to have the opportunity to add their support to what is in effect a national campaign by local government and to approve the consequent recommendations.

I will address two aspects of this legislation - the fundamental rights of individual citizens which it seeks to curtail, and the effect on local government both in financial terms, and perhaps more importantly, in the way in which the relationship between the Council and the citizens it exists to serve, will be affected.

The 2006 Act is in place, and despite some minor backtracking, the government appears determined to introduce ID cards and the vast national database, the National Identity Register, which will underpin its operation. This resolution seeks a positive commitment from this Council that it will not assist in its implementation and indeed that it will do whatever is legally possible to reduce its impact.

The government claims that the reasons for introducing the Act are to help in the fight against terrorism, reduce illegal immigration and reduce benefit fraud - all laudable objectives in themselves, but in each instance close analysis has revealed that the identity components of each of these areas are relatively insignificant and that those cheating the present system can be expected to work their way around the new one. Of course any government must do all that it can to deal with these issues but to require the holding of at least 50 categories of personal information on each of the 60 million individuals who reside in this country is an unacceptable way of tackling these problems.

This legislation would change the whole relationship between government and people and significantly undermine the rights and expectations regarding individual privacy that are fundamental to our way of life. The National Identity Management System comprises the ID Card, the National Identity Register, individual checking and numbering of the population, storing a wide range of personal details to be disclosed and updated by each individual, the collection and checking of biometric information, a widespread scanner and computer terminal network connected to the central database, significant use of compulsory identity verification and large scale data sharing between organisations.

There have been many recently recorded incidents of personal information being lost or stolen from discs and laptops despite the most advanced encryption techniques. Non-one can guarantee the security of the personal details held in any section of the National Identity System - and what possibilities such a register would present for a future far-right or far-left controlled government or Council to access personal information for its own devious purposes.

There can be no reliable cost estimates of this scheme but all estimates so far made are chillingly vast - figures vary from £5.5 billion to £18 billion for set-up costs alone. What is quite clear is that compliance costs for public service providers including Councils will be huge - and no-one can seriously think that these costs would be subsidised by a Government with a record of imposing responsibilities on local authorities without providing the enabling funding. The cost will fall on the Council Tax payer probably at the expense of service provision and on each individual resident through increased charges.

This resolution asks the Council to take three actions so long as those actions remain legally possible - to take no part in any pilot or feasibility work in relation to the introduction of the ID Card scheme and make clear to government that it will not do so; to refuse to participate in the national database and make clear to government that it will not do so, and to establish as Council policy that Identity Cards will not be required to obtain Council benefits or services and make that policy clear to government.

Individually they may appear to be small steps of defiance against unacceptable government intrusion into our private lives - but many other local authorities throughout the country have already taken action to implement all three measures - and together send an important message to the central government - that local government values the freedom of individuals and their right to privacy; values its relationship with the citizens that it serves and will do everything possible to prevent that relationship being undermined'.

Stephen Cooksey

Surrey County Councillor for Dorking and the Holmwoods

25 November 2008