cryptogon.com

The Home Office made clear that repeated failures to keep an entry on the national identity register up to date could ultimately be enforced by bailiffs being sent round to seize property.

But yesterday’s detailed regulations to implement the national identity card scheme make clear that they intend to avoid the creation of ID card “martyrs”, by levying no penalty on those who refuse to register for the national identity card database in the first place.

The Liberal Democrat peer, Lady Williams, is amongst ID card “refuseniks” who have said they are prepared to go to jail rather than sign up for the scheme.

But the regulations show that the main sanction they are likely to face is being barred from leaving the country when it is time to renew their passport.

The regulations confirm ministers’ intention to make passports a “designated document” which means anyone applying or renewing their passport will be automatically issued with an ID card at the same time. Ministers claim that this does not amount to compulsion but ID card critics disagree.

The consultation on the fine detail of how the ID card scheme will work in practice published yesterday also makes clear:

• The £30 initial fee for a standalone ID card valid for travel in Europe only is capped for the year 2009/10 when it will be compulsory for airport workers and on a voluntary basis for students. The regulations allow for this fee to be “modified” in future years including by 2012, when it is anticipated that mass rollout will take place with 5-6 million combined passports/identity cards a year expected to be issued. Passport fees will be on top of this basic charge.

• If it necessary to change any of the details held on the card, such as name or fingerprints which entail a new card being issued, a further £30 will be charged. Changes of address or other details which do not appear on the card will not be charged.

• Transgendered people: those “moving from their birth gender to an acquired gender” will be able to apply for two ID cards – one for each gender. The second ID card will use a different name, signature and photograph although they will be linked as one entry on the national ID card register. Nevertheless they will be charged two fees for the privilege of holding two cards.

• Homeless people and others who live “transient lifestyles” will also be able to register under the scheme. The Home Office expects to be able to agree with homeless people a suitable place to be registered as their residence – presumably even if it is only a railway arch. Those who move around frequently for work will be able to register their principal residence without notifying each move.

But the draft regulations also set out in detail the escalating series of fines for those who fail to keep their ID card register entry up to date or fail to correct errors on it.

The kind of details that must be provided within three months are a change of address, a change of name perhaps because of marriage or by deed poll, a change of nationality, a change of gender, or a significant change in an individual’s face or their fingerprints perhaps because of an accident.

The Home Office say they will not need to police this aspect as it will soon become apparent when somebody tries, for example, to get on a plane with a ID card/passport with an out of date address that does not match that the bank debit/credit card they used to book the flight.

They say they may well find themselves not being allowed to travel. Those who lose their ID Cards or have them stolen will have to report the loss within a month.

Fines for failure to update the register start at £125 going up to £1,000 for repeatedly failing to comply. As a civil penalty the bailiffs may be sent in to enforce payment.

The shadow home secretary, Dominic Grieve, said the scheme was truly the worst of all worlds – expensive, intrusive and unworkable.

“The home secretary has confirmed the worst element of the scheme – a single, mammoth and highly vulnerable database exposing masses of our personal details to criminal hackers.

“Worse still, she has magnified the scope for fraud by allowing spot fines to be issued by email,” he said.

The NO2ID campaign say that in just four weeks in 2005, more than 10,000 people pledged online to refuse to register for an ID card.