ID CARDS

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MI5 holds secret files on 272,000 individuals who pose no danger to this country, that's one in 160 adults. MPs and civil-rights campaigners said resources should be concentrated on combating genuine threats rather than storing personal and political data about innocent citizens. Figures released by the Home Office reveal that a further 53,000 files are held about organisations, but 110,000 files have been destroyed since Labour came to power in 1997.

The information was obtained by Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, who believes he was the target of MI5 surveillance in the Eighties because of his activities as an environmental protester. Five years ago he won a High Court ruling giving him access to his file, which ended the security services' blanket exemption from the Data Protection Act. Mr Baker said, "I don't believe there are 272,000 people in this country who are subversive or potentially subversive."

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, said, "We need to be sure that MI5 officers are not keeping files just for the sake of it. Resources should be concentrated on gathering information on those who pose a real threat to this country." A Home Office spokesman said, "We are not prepared to comment any further than the information given in the answers to the parliamentary questions." (Source: Daily Mail, Jul/06)

Motorists could soon be forced to carry an ID card under plans to recall current driving licences. Ministers are proposing to issue it in place of the old style document, effectively making it compulsory for all drivers to have one. A member from the London School of Economics said, "We could all have to get an ID card if we want to drive. And if they can do this for driving licences, what's to stop them trying wedding licences next?" Home Secretary Charles Clarke claims ID cards would eventually be so popular that people would demand that they be made compulsory. (Source: Daily Mirror, Feb/06)

David Blunkett warned that people refusing to register for ID cards face £2,500 fines. Mr Blunkett said they would be charged in civil rather than criminal courts to avoid protesters being jailed and becoming "martyrs". The Home Secretary's warning came as he unveiled his draft Identity Cards Bill, detailing Britain's first ID card scheme since the Second World War.

He said it would help tackle terrorism, identity theft, illegal immigration and other crime, but he warned it could not ensure complete protection from terror attacks. "It will contribute towards the overall task of prevention but it will not guarantee we will not be hit," he said. Under the £3billion programme, ID cards, passports and driving licences will carry hi-tech scans of the holder's face, eyes and fingerprints.

The first passports with face scans could be available in 2005. By 2007 Britons should be able to voluntarily apply for documents with all three sophisticated recognition systems and by 2013 ministers expect four in five adults to have the hi-tech documents. MPs will then vote on whether to make them compulsory, in which case even royals would have to carry them. The eventual £3billion cost will be funded by a hike in passport charges. Hi-tech passports and driving licences, which will double as ID cards, will cost £77 and £73. Plain ID cards will cost £35.

But Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said the Home Office often failed to deliver on pledges. He added, "We have got to make sure it delivers a proper balance of a weapon against terrorism, but also one which pays proper service to civil liberties." However, the Lib Dems' Mark Oaten said, "This will do little to tackle terrorism. The £3billion would be better spent on more intelligence and policing."

Britain's intelligence services are seeking powers to seize all records of telephone calls, emails and internet connections made by every person living in this country. A document circulated to Home Office officials reveals that MI5, MI6 and the police are demanding new legislation to log every phone call made in this country and store the information for seven years at a vast government-run 'data warehouse', a super computer that will hold the information.

The secret moves, which will cost millions of pounds, were condemned by politicians and campaigners as a sinister expansion of 'Big Brother' state powers and a fundamental attack on the public's right to privacy. Lord Cope, the Conservative peer and a leading expert on privacy issues, said, "We are sympathetic to the need for greater powers to fight modern types of crime. But vast banks of information on every member of the public can quickly slip into the world of Big Brother. I will be asking serious questions about this."

Maurice Frankel, a leading campaigner on personal data issues, called the powers 'sweeping' and a cause for worry. The document, which is classified 'restricted', says new laws are needed to allow the intelligence services, Customs and Excise and the police access to telephone and computer records of every member of the public.

It suggests that the Home Office is sympathetic to the new powers, which would be used to tackle the growing problems of cybercrime, the use of computers by paedophiles to run child pornography rings, as well as terrorism and international drug trafficking. Every telephone call made and received by a member of the public, all emails sent and received and every web page looked at would be recorded.

Calls made on mobile phones can already be pinpointed geographically, as can those made from land lines. The police would be able to use 'trawling' computer techniques to look through millions of telephone and email records. Campaigners say innocent people could have such highly personal information accessed.

The document admits the moves are controversial and could clash with the Human Rights Act, which gives people a right to privacy, European Union law and the Data Protection Act, which protects the public against official intrusion into private lives. The document says the new data warehouse would be run along similar lines to the National DNA Database for profiles of known criminals. It would cost about £3 million to set up and £9m a year to run.