The UK Government is implementing in stages a wide-ranging National Identity Register (NIR) identity card scheme, introduced through the
Identity Cards Act 2006 and sections of the
UK Borders Act 2007.
The biometric cards themselves are merely a pointer to the National Identity Register, a vast informational database. The introduction of ID cards into the UK raises serious human rights concerns around the right to privacy and also gives rise to the potential for exacerbating exclusion and discrimination.
The Commission opposes the current NIR identity card scheme and wants to see it withdrawn.
At a roundtable seminar on 15 October 2008, the Commission opened up the debate on identity card schemes. Daniel Holder, Policy Worker, presented a Commission briefing paper entitled "More Than Just a Card – Intrusion, Exclusion and Suspect Communities: Implications in Northern Ireland of the British National Identity Scheme". This paper was updated in September 2009 to reflect developments in government policy since 2008.
Arun Kundnani (Institute of Race Relations) spoke about the experiences of ‘new suspect communities’ in Great Britain. Bernadette McAliskey (South Tyrone Empowerment Programme) examined suspect communities past and present and Rebekah Delsol (Open Society Justice Initiative) discussed ethnic profiling, ID and European Experiences.
