The U.K. government's plan for a national ID card survived
another legislative round on Monday, with House of Commons
lawmakers amending the bill to make an ID card mandatory when
people apply for a new passport.
Monday's amendment was welcomed by the government, which has
pushed for a mandatory ID card to cut down on long-standing
problems of public benefits and banking fraud. A further law will
have to be passed to make the mandatory measure stick, however.
Another amendment passed Monday requires new passport applicants
to be entered in the national ID card register. Members of
Parliament debated whether the two systems -- one for biometric
passports and the other for national ID cards, which could also
contain biometric data -- should coexist given the similar
information that will be stored in both.
Lawmakers also passed an amendment requiring a report every six
months on the cost of the ID card plan, striking down a previous
change in the House of Lords that would have required only an
initial report on its costs.
The government had said the annual operating costs for issuing
ID cards and passports would be B#584 million (US$1 billion). It
estimates it will cost B#30 for an ID card that will last 10 years
and B#63 for a new passport.
The Identity Cards Bill will now move back to the House of Lords
for further debate, although no date has been set.
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