Magna Carta Plus News

One of the arguments the government has been using for its Identity Cards scheme is that it will help secure people’s personal information and protect them from identity fraud by providing secure identity document. When considering this claim, it’s worth considering the competence of the people who are putting it forward, i.e. the government and in particular the Home Office. The record is not impressive:

• Since 2004, 1500 passports handled by the Home Office have gone missing in the post, admittedlly down from 3,500 per year prior to 2004. According to the Scotsman, 34,000 passports have been lost over the last five years by the DVLA (20,660) and Passport Service (13,650) together.
• The Independent recently reported that the personal details of hundreds of thousands of people had been sold to criminals by civil servants at the Dept of Work and Pensions, for cash, in order to create fake IDs. This is not the first time such lapses have been reported at the DWP. Back in 2005, the BBC reported on how organised criminals systematically defrauded the tax credits system, an action aided by the stealing of a minimum of 13,000 identities from the DWP.
• Back in November, the Mail on Sunday reported that the Driving and Vehicle Licensing Authority has allowed private companies access to their databases toprivate companies operating car parks, some of whom have then gone on to extort money from the individuals concerned:
  

  The Government is selling the names and home addresses of motorists on its drivers’ database to convicted criminals, a Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed.

  The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) tells would-be wheel-clampers there is “no problem” with them buying drivers’ home addresses - even if they have a criminal record.

  Indeed, the two bosses of one clamping firm on the list of companies to whom the DVLA is happy to sell drivers’ details are currently serving seven years’ jail between them for extorting money from motorists.

  The Mail on Sunday has now forced the DVLA to hand over its list of 157 firms which can buy personal information about drivers at £2.50 a time. All the companies need do is tap in a registration plate, and back comes the full name and address of the vehicle’s owners.

  The dossier shows that details of millions of drivers have been made available to bailiffs, credit control companies, debt collection agencies, property management firms, leisure centres, solicitors - and even one of the world’s biggest loan and financial services companies.

  A number of other companies on the list appear to be dissolved or simply not to exist.

  As can be seen little is done to ensure that the companies concerned are accessing the database for legitimate reason.

• The DVLA also employed someone who ended up selling details to animal rights activists.
• Back in 2002, the names and addresses and phone numbers of prison warders were accidently given to inmates at Reading Young Offenders institute.
• The BBC reported, in 2001, that staff at the Inland Revenue had been caught selling celebrities’ tax details to outside agencies, breaking data protection laws. HM Revenue and Customs (the successor to the Inland Revenue) have more recently suffered the theft of staff IDs to facilitate the defrauding of the tax credit system referred to above.
• The Telegraph has reported that the passing of the Identity Cards Act 2006 has inadvertently repealed the law making it an offence to forge passports! You couldn’t make it up.

The Identity Cards Act will create a national identity register storing every name you’ve been known by, every address you’ve ever lived at and, each time your identity is checked who checked it and why. It will also feature a unique National Identity Registration Number issued to each individual, which will eventually index to all the other government databases thus making it much easier for people to steal information about you. The government claims this scheme will help to secure your identity, but given it is responsible for the above shambles, would you trust them?