Guess who's rumoured to be the front-runner for the ID Card database contract? EDS! I will leave you to write your own jokes…

The summary of the LSE report is worth having a browse (the full report is even better, including pointing out that security services will be able to modify the database as they wish, creating new identities and being able to alter your details, which includes time / location of verification, so they can make you appear to be anywhere they want you to be…hurrah!)

Choice bits:

The technology envisioned for this scheme is, to a large extent, untested and unreliable. No scheme on this scale has been undertaken anywhere in the world. Smaller and less ambitious systems have encountered substantial technological and operational problems that are likely to be amplified in a large-scale, national system. The use of biometrics gives rise to particular concern because this technology has never been used at such a scale.

We also accept that the proposed scheme is likely to have an impact on false identity within the benefits sector. However, the government has already put in place vetting regimes that are rigorous and effective. Benefit fraud through false identity is relatively rare and we believe the cost of introducing an identity card in the benefits environment would far outweigh any savings that could be made.

The Government has consistently asserted that that biometrics proposals, both in the new UK passport format and in the identity cards legislation, is a harmonising measure required by international obligations, and is thus no different to the plans and intentions of the UK’s international partners. There is no evidence to support this assertion.

Identity Cards: Just Say No, MPs…(or more realistically, the House of Lords, which will throw it out again, thus raising the spectre of the Parliament Act once more)