All British citizens will have their fingerprints
and photographs registered on a national ID database within
10 years under plans outlined by the Government.
Millions in sensitive jobs, including teachers,
carers and health workers, will be among the first to be entered
on to the identity register.
In a bid to kick start the project - the world's biggest
- foreign nationals working in Britain will begin to be issued
with cards from November. Starting next year, the first British
citizens will be enrolled beginning with some airport staff,
power station employees and people working on the London Olympics
site.
Fingerprint kiosks, modelled on existing photograph booths
in stations and shops, could be set up around the country
to help people enrol. Plans outlined by Jacqui Smith, the
Home Secretary, yesterday envisage a fee of £30 for
a stand-alone card, and more than £100 for a combined
ID card and passport.
But ministers have been told by their own expert that enrolment
should be free if the scheme is ''to win hearts and minds''.
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A report commissioned by Gordon Brown from Sir James Crosby,
a former banking chief, raised the prospect of the taxpayer
stumping up the full cost. The Government has insisted all
along that the multi-billion pound scheme would be funded
through fees and not taxes.
Sir James also came out against including a digital image
of the cardholder's fingerprints on the microchip in each
ID card. For security reasons, the card and database should
only hold some elements of a biometric, he said.
His report was published alongside a new Government timetable
for introducing a universal ID scheme by 2017.
From the start of 2010 young people will be able to get an
identity card if they chose and will be issued with a unique
personal identity number. Later that year the scheme will
be opened up to voluntary applicants of any age.
From 2012 - after the next general election - anyone applying
for a new passport will automatically be fingerprinted and
49 pieces of personal information logged on the database.
This is three years later than planned when the scheme was
first proposed after the September 11 terrorist attacks in
2001.
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