Britain rejects plans to introduce controversial national ID cards.

Britain rejects plans to introduce controversial national ID cards.

The government announced last week that British citizens will never be forced to carry ID cards.

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that a trial scheme that was to force some airport staff to carry the controversial cards has been scrapped.The massive climb-down means that carrying an ID card will now never be made compulsory for members of the general public.

The move signals the end of one of Labour's most controversial policies, which has been championed by a succession of Home Secretaries.

Opposition parties and campaigners who have argued the £5billion scheme is unnecessary and excessively expensive have prevailed in this much publicised debate.

Insisting that ID cards should be voluntary, Mr Johnson, home secretary said 'Holding an identity card should be a personal choice for British citizens - just as it is now to obtain a passport.'

Previously, ministers said ID cards could become compulsory once 80 per cent of the population was covered. Jacqui Smith unveils the ID card in September last year - six months after conceding that they would not be compulsory after all

The cards were being trialed at Manchester Airport and London City Airport prior to a national roll-out but that trial has now been cancelled, Mr Johnson said.

The announcement means that foreign nationals in the UK will be the only group of people who will be forced to carry the cards.

Earlier this year it was revealed that the bill for issuing ID cards and passports over the next ten years is now £4.945billion for UK citizens and £379million for foreign nationals.

The rollout of the ID card scheme will now be accelerated on a purely voluntary basis for UK citizens at £30 per card, starting in Greater Manchester by the end of the year.

Mr Johnson said: 'I want the introduction of identity cards for all British citizens to be voluntary and I have therefore decided that identity cards issued to airside workers, planned initially at Manchester and London City airports later this year, should also be voluntary.'

Asked if the cards would ever be made compulsory he said: 'No'.'If a future Government wanted to make them compulsory it would require primary legislation,' he added.Charles Clarke was just one of a number of Home Secretaries who championed the identity cards.
Mr Johnson said he still believed the cards would help improve security at airports. But he admitted the Government had allowed the perception that the cards would be a 'panacea' that would stop terrorism.

Everyone who wants a card, or a biometric passport, will have their details stored on the national identity register.

The scheme has been mired in controversy ever since its launch, coming under fire from all angles as politicians tried to present it as a solution to multiple problems.

It has been proposed as a way of countering terrorism, identity theft and misuse of public services and also as a way of proving the carrier's age and identity generally.

ID cards were enshrined in the Identity Cards Act 2006 and major contracts were to have been awarded by the end of this year for design, production and rollout.

Cards are linked to the National Identity Register, a centralised database intended to hold information such as fingerprints, facial and iris scans, past and present addresses.

The Unite union which represents many of the workers, welcomed the move.

National officer Brian Boyd said: 'The continued persistence of Unite in highlighting the unworkable elements of this scheme, has paid-off.

'Our approach in pursuing the Government on behalf of many thousands of airside workers who would have been disadvantaged by the introduction of ID cards, has been fully vindicated.

'National safety very often begins at UK airports, and our members who work airside are in the frontline in this respect. However, the Government's plans were flawed, thankfully today's announcement by the Home Secretary is the sensible choice.'

Next year young people opening bank accounts are to be encouraged to obtain ID cards and over the following two years anyone getting a passport will get one - but can opt out.

The cost of the cards per person was given as £77 in 2004, then as £93 in July 2005. But research by the London School of Economics put it at a massive £230 a head.

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