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Smith to unveil airport ID scheme Shops may take ID card biometrics
(about 3 hours later)
Workers at two airports will be used to test UK national identity card, the government is expected to announce. Supermarkets could be asked to take people's fingerprints as part of the government's identity card scheme.
The Home Office's delivery plan for the ID cards said they would be issued to airside workers at all the country's airports from the second half of 2009. The Home Office is talking to retailers and the Post Office about setting up booths to gather biometric data.
However, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is set to unveil an 18-month pilot at just London City and Manchester airports. It comes as Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced ID cards would be issued to airside workers at Manchester and London City airport from late 2009.
Airport unions have been resisting the scheme, saying workers would have to pay £30 for a card to do their jobs. The Home Office denied the 18-month trial was a retreat on plans to issue all 200,000 airside workers with cards.
However, it is understood that the cards would be issued free during the evaluation period. "We made it clear when we published the Delivery Plan in March 2008 that ID cards for critical workers would be 'starting in the second half of 2009' and we are on track to meet this commitment," a Home Office spokesman said.
The spokesman said it was not a pilot project as ID cards would definitely be issued to the remaining airside workers in due course, as a precursor to a wider roll-out to the rest of the population.
But campaigners NO2ID said it was a "transparent attempt to save ministerial face" after anger from airport unions and airline bosses.
Voluntary systemVoluntary system
The Unite union, which represents airport workers, has said staff are already extensively vetted before being given airside passes.The Unite union, which represents airport workers, has said staff are already extensively vetted before being given airside passes.
BBC News home affairs correspondent Rory MacLean says the home secretary's announcement would appear to be a step back from the original plan to require all airport workers to have the cards from next year. We are seeing a rather transparent attempt, I think, to save some ministerial face Phil Booth, No 2 ID campaign class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=5602&edition=1">Send us your comments
The Home Office published its National Identity Scheme Delivery Plan on 6 March this year. We are seeing a rather transparent attempt, I think, to save some ministerial face Phil Booth, No 2 ID campaign class="" href="http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=5602&edition=1">Send us your comments Airport unions have been resisting the scheme, saying workers would have to pay £30 for a card to do their jobs.
It said: "The first ID cards will be issued to people working in specific sensitive roles or locations where verification of identity will enhance the protection of the public. However, it is understood that the cards would be issued free during the evaluation period.
"This will start in the second half of 2009, with the issuing of identity cards to those working airside in the country's airports." Airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and EasyJet, also spoke out against the plan, saying it was "unjustified" and would not improve security.
Non-EU students and marriage visa holders will be the first to receive the ID cards this month, followed by airport workers and from 2010 a voluntary system for other people will come into effect. On plans to involve retailers and the Post Office in the ID cards scheme, a spokesman said it would be "more convenient" for people than the government's original plan to set up enrolment centres in large population centres.
Phil Booth, from campaign group No 2 ID, told the BBC the government had performed a "complete roll-back" by limiting the trial to two airports. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) would continue to carry out enrolment at its offices but a spokesman said it also wanted to "drive down costs using market forces and competition" and was talking to a "range of high street retailers and other organisations".
Data security
He stressed that security of data would remain the "utmost priority".
"Any third party involved in enrolment would be accredited and audited to ensure they meet and continue to meet robust and strictly administered security standards.
"System design standards will ensure that no data is stored locally and that all data is transmitted directly to IPS using a secure communications link. In addition all locations and personnel will be subject to strict security standards set by IPS."
But Phil Booth, national coordinator of the NO2ID campaign, said the government would struggle to find private firms willing to bid for the ID card contract.
"The government is selling a pig in a poke. What company is going embarrass itself to the tune of millions for a contract that everyone outside the Home Office itself knows will be cancelled by a new administration?" he said.
'Bullying' claim
He also claimed the government had performed a "complete roll-back" by limiting the trial to two airports.
"We are seeing a rather transparent attempt, I think, to save some ministerial face," he said."We are seeing a rather transparent attempt, I think, to save some ministerial face," he said.
"The unions and the industry are clearly opposed to this and if the government were to try to force this on the 200,000 airside workers they had previously claimed then they would find themselves either in court or facing industrial action.""The unions and the industry are clearly opposed to this and if the government were to try to force this on the 200,000 airside workers they had previously claimed then they would find themselves either in court or facing industrial action."
He accused the home secretary of "bullying" workers to join a scheme which was less stringent than existing airport vetting rules.He accused the home secretary of "bullying" workers to join a scheme which was less stringent than existing airport vetting rules.
'Biometric enrolment'
Mr Booth also said the government would struggle to find private firms willing to bid for the ID card contract.
"What company is going embarrass itself to the tune of millions for a contract that everyone outside the Home Office itself knows will be cancelled by a new administration?" he said.
A spokeswoman for the Identity and Passport Service said it was "too early to speculate" on which companies might want to run the ID scheme.
"IPS is inviting the views of a wide range of trade bodies and organisations to understand how organisations could provide biometric enrolment services in a way which is convenient to customers," she said.
"At this stage we plan to have open and exploratory discussions with a wide range of organisations and will not be selecting suppliers or issuing contracts."