Downing Street Says

» Wednesday, January 23, 2008

ID Cards

Asked why the Government was backtracking on ID cards and was it because of the data losses of recent months, the PMS replied that he did not accept the premise of the question. The position remains as set out in the Strategic Plan for the National Identity Scheme, published in December 2006. As the Prime Minister had said on numerous occasions and the PMS had said that morning, identity cards had an important role to play in helping deal with the issue of identity theft, because they were biometric and therefore helped protect peoples identity. Put that the leaked document contradicted that, the PMS said that what matters was the decisions taken by Ministers and we would not comment on leaked documents. If and when there were any future announcements, the Government would make those announcements. The position remained as set out in the 2006 document.

Asked if ID cards would be needed to access any particular services such as student loans, the PMS reiterated that the position was exactly as set out in December 2006. Put that it had changed due to the Home Office saying in a statement that the timetable was incremental, the PMS said that the Government had always said that ID cards would be rolled out on an incremental basis. Put that there were now two different timetables, the PMS said that the timetable that was the agreed Government position was set out in December 2006 and if there were any changes to that, there would be further announcements.

Put that it was still the Government’s position that significant volumes of ID cards would be issued in 2010, the PMS repeated that the position remained what was set out in the 2006 document.

Asked if ID cards were discussed at Cabinet on Tuesday, the PMS said not from his recollection. Asked if the Government would be using young people as guinea pigs for the rollout of ID cards, the PMS replied that again he did not accept the premise of the question. The PMS added that he was being asked to comment on a leaked document, which he was not going to do.

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