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Local councilors are to “police” the government’s national ID Cards Database and fine residents £2,500 if they fail to register or update their personal details, a Whitehall paper has revealed. Published by the Department of Constitutional Affairs, the document proposes a centralised electronic register of voters to link with the national Database, so local bureaucrats can compare data and ‘investigate’ any discrepancies. The new database, known as CORE, will be overseen by a ‘keeper’ who will receive daily information from electoral registration offices (EROs), enabling checks to be made against the national dataset, thereby exposing anomalies and potential frauds. According to the Whitehall paper, released in December, “the government is proposing a structure that retains independent local systems but requires them to mirror their information to a central data repository.” Such a system is likely to store much more information than the ‘full' electoral register. It will go further by detailing absent voter list information, “personal identifiers” and “off-register” data for “anonymous electors.” Under the proposals, the keeper would then communicate back any discrepancies to the affected EROs, empowering town hall officials to identify homes and individuals that appear to be without identity cards. “This could mean that councils end up acting as the local 'police' for the ID Card Agency,” said Oliver Heald MP, shadow minister for e-government. “[Local officials could] track down those who fail to inform the State of their new address or new family circumstances.” The minister added fines of up to £2,500 face lax cardholders - people who have either not updated their information as it reads in the national Database, or have failed to register their details at all. Under the current Identity Cards Bill, due before the Lords this week, UK residents must submit their details to a new national ID Card Database, when they apply for a passport, thereby making registration compulsory. Guy Herbert, general secretary of NO2ID, says the imposed charge of £2,500 is more costly than a simple ‘fine.’ He told Contractor UK: “There is a penalty, not a fine, of up to £2,500…for failing to register as required or obstructing registration. “The difference is that a penalty is imposed by administrative action and you have to go to court at your own expense to prove you are not liable, like a monstrous parking ticket.” Penalties of up to £1,000 will also be imposed for failure to report damaged or lost ID cards, he said. Elsewhere, the Whitehall paper adds the government is considering linking the remaining public sector databases, not just the planned Cards Database, to the CORE system. In addition, the State is calling for people’s views on whether authorised bodies – such as the police - should be granted direct access to the CORE record electronically, “in order to search for the most up-to date information.” Smaller users and other “large scale users of electoral data” are also to be considered as agencies that under “strict controls,” could obtain information from CORE, rather than EROs. NO2ID said the release of the Department paper, not just its content, was itself a revelation. “Previously the government has refused to provide any hints of the work going on in departments outside the Home Office, even though it has made it very clear that the system is intended to be the basis of a total transformation of all public sector activities. “What is proposed is a national registration scheme: a database designed to link together all government and most private records about individuals, and to provide an audit trail of your every significant civil activity by logging each transaction where you are identified against your personal record,” Mr Herbert said. Meanwhile, Oliver Heald MP said the scheme for national ID cards – objected to by over 11,000 Britons on NO2ID’s website – represented a massive assault on peoples’ privacy. “There is growing concern amongst the public about Labour's use of invasive 'Big Brother' computer databases - without transparency or clear backing from the public – such as for the forthcoming council tax revaluation. “I believe local residents will be alarmed at the further prospect of town hall bureaucrats being told to investigate people's homes for ID Cards, backed up with the threat of thousand pound fines.” Jan 11, 2006 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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