The government has admitted "overselling" the advantages of national identity cards. Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister responsible for the project, told a left-wing think tank ID cards would not be a panacea for terrorism or fraud.
But the government remained committed to the scheme - despite the high cost. Mr McNulty also said a battle between the Commons and the Lords about whether the cards become compulsory would end in deadlock.
The government's intended procedure for Parliament to approve the move to compulsion, by which both houses have to vote in favour, was "an algorithmic recipe for deadlock because it does not resolve the situation if one house says yes and the other says no", he said.
There are now so many almost daily occasions when we have to stand up and verify our identity. Mr McNulty is quoted as saying at the meeting: "Perhaps in the past the government, in its enthusiasm, oversold the advantages of identity cards. "We did suggest, or at least implied, that they might well be a panacea for identity fraud, for benefit fraud, terrorism, entitlement and access to public services."
In its "enthusiasm", the government had over-emphasised the benefits to the state rather than for "the individual in providing a gold standard in proving your identity", he told the private seminar in Whitehall.
Read on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4744153.stm
But the government remained committed to the scheme - despite the high cost. Mr McNulty also said a battle between the Commons and the Lords about whether the cards become compulsory would end in deadlock.
The government's intended procedure for Parliament to approve the move to compulsion, by which both houses have to vote in favour, was "an algorithmic recipe for deadlock because it does not resolve the situation if one house says yes and the other says no", he said.
There are now so many almost daily occasions when we have to stand up and verify our identity. Mr McNulty is quoted as saying at the meeting: "Perhaps in the past the government, in its enthusiasm, oversold the advantages of identity cards. "We did suggest, or at least implied, that they might well be a panacea for identity fraud, for benefit fraud, terrorism, entitlement and access to public services."
In its "enthusiasm", the government had over-emphasised the benefits to the state rather than for "the individual in providing a gold standard in proving your identity", he told the private seminar in Whitehall.
Read on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4744153.stm
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