A firmer stand on ID cards essential

Published on Saturday 21 February 2009 18:40

THE Scottish Government is to be applauded for its firm commitment not to support the UK identity card scheme ('Ewing brands ID plan "unacceptable threat"', February 15).

Unfortunately, during the Holyrood debate on ID cards last November, there was an enormous elephant in the room, and this was the National Entitlement Card (NEC), first introduced in Scotland in 2006.

For, as many people are becoming aware, this card is a Trojan horse ID card. It was cleverly introduced into Scotland by the former administration as merely being a new kind of 'pensioner bus pass'. But since then it has been rapidly spreading its wings, rebadged as the YoungScot card and now being used in many places to provide access to library and leisure services. And eventually, of course, the card was designed to integrate fully with the UK ID card scheme and Westminster's so-called "transformational government" (data sharing) agenda.

However, the shocking truth is that the NEC card is actually a fully functioning ID card. Moreover, its properties are so intrusive that it would not be permitted in Germany and other countries, places which already use ID cards.

The two properties which make the card so controversial elsewhere are that it is based around the use of a national Unique Citizen Reference Number (UCRN) and an associated national database or register, the so-called citizen's account. These are key properties which it shares with the UK identity card scheme, and the UCRN number would be the device which would eventually enable the two schemes to be connected together.

In my recent correspondence with the Scottish Government, I explained very clearly why the NEC card would not be permitted as an ID card in several other European countries. Most surprisingly, in their reply there was no attempt made to refute this, but merely a somewhat irrelevant comment about Germany's "unique political history".

So I now remain puzzled. Is the Scottish Government genuine in its opposition to ID cards? Or is it prepared to accept an ID card, cunningly introduced by the former administration, as long as it comes with a different label?

Dr John Welford, Edinburgh