I'm disappointed in the coverage in the UK press so far - I'm still not sure exactly what Blair is proposing. And until I know that, I'm not sure what to think of it. Can anyone help fill in the blanks, or correct me?
Biometrics: the possibilities are facial scan, iris scan, and fingerprints. All the news reports I've found just say 'or', which implies either the government hasn't yet decided which one to use (an important decision, wouldn't you think?) or we'll actually get the choice. When a
BBC reporter volunteered for a card, he had all 3 taken - does this mean we'll have to have all 3 recorded, and the 'or' means those who are checking us get the choice of which to check?
Verification machines: these will be available to both public and private entities. So far this includes police stations, doctors' surgeries and benefit offices. I'm guessing 'private entities' will include banks (because I've seen bank accounts mentioned in the list of things this will stop fraud in). Cost:
between £250 and £750 (imprecise possibly because it's not clear if these will be scanners of your biometrics, or just card readers that send enough encoded information to the central database). Number needed: 'at least 4000' (well, yes, I'd think that with 60 million people, and a largish doctor's surgery having 10,000 patients, there must be 6000 surgeries to cover, for a start).
Cost to the individual: the passport fee will double from £42 to £85; but most (all?) of this was forced on us by the Americans, who are insisting on biometrics encoded in passports. When 60% of people over 16 have them, they will become compulsory for everyone. A card without a passport will cost £35. At least, those are the prices if the whole country paid that amount. People on low incomes or the elderly may get discounts, which will increase the normal price.
The Register says you get a card in Hong Kong for free, and it costs $20 for a replacement; they say the charges are to help pay for the central register.
Updating it: the card may last for 10 years, like a passport, or some other time. No one knows. You get fined £1000 if you don't keep your address up to date; but we don't know if there's a charge for updating your address. There's no information on whether a replacement card costs just as much as the original.
Access to the data: it seems that private groups (like banks) will be able to scan your card; in theory, I presume they don't get access to all the data on the register (like
every time someone has accessed your record. I guess the police will get access to everything, but it's not clear if they need a reason for it, or can just do it for kicks. No one has said whether they can use the database for matching fingerprints taken from the scene of a crime - or for general surveillance of the public. I'm guessing that means they will be able to, but the government doesn't want to look like Big Brother, so they're trying to keep quiet about it.
So far, they've been adamant that you won't have to carry the thing with you. In practice, if enough groups demand to see your card in everyday life, it may become the normal thing to always have it with you anyway - in which case they could probably make it compulsory.