The government issued a little-reported document this month on ID cards. It was quietly published when the home secretary Jacqui Smith announced that some volunteer members of the public in Greater Manchester would be the first to receive ID cards in November.
These are 10 things from the document, ?Identity Cards Act Secondary Legislation - An Impact Assessment?, which might not be generally known:
1. The ID Cards Act 2006 imposes on citizens a duty to update information held on them on the National Identity Register (NIR). Cardholders can receive civil penalty fines if they fail to update information held about them on the NIR or notify the Identity and Passport Service if their card is lost or stolen. Citizens may also be in breach of legislation if they fail to notify a change of address within three months. It is open to the government to charge a fee for updating the register.
2. An individual?s entry on the NIR can be given to ?government departments or other public sector organisations without the consent of the individual provided they [departments and agencies] have been approved to do so by parliament under secondary legislation?. Secondary legislation does not need any specific parliament approval. The power to enact it has already been given under primary legislation.
3. The Home Office will allow ID cardholders to check the information held on them on the NIR. ?Right from the beginning, individuals will be able to obtain a copy of what is held on their record in line with subject access rights under the Data Protection Act.? Much information about individuals will not be on the register itself but brought together from various databases when needed.
