Lost and Stolen Identities and Documents: A Sign of Things to Come for ID Cards?

Anti-ID Card campaigners have highlighted two separate issues this week which increase fears for the forthcoming Identity Card scheme. The identities of 13,000 civil servants have been stolen from Department of Work and Pensions databases by organised criminals, and around 600,000 documents have been reported lost or stolen by the Identity and Passport Service.

Local Lib Dem Campaigner Tim Prater is worried about both the ID Cards and National Computer database that comes with it:

"ID Cards don't solve the identity theft problem: they create a brand new market for it. The ID Database that comes with ID Cards is more complex than any other database currently in place of being built - and there are Government databases currently being built which are billions over budget and still don't work.

It's not only a bad idea in principle - it'll be an unworkable idea in practice. This Government seems hell-bent on spending billions - of YOUR money - trying to implement it. In comparison, the Millennium Dome is going to end up like a small, cheap planning mistake next to the thundering nightmare that ID Cards are shaping up to be."

Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said:

"If organised criminals are capable of infiltrating the Department of Work and Pensions, it is clear they will target the Identity Cards database where the stakes are even higher. The government's claims that ID cards will cut identity fraud look increasingly unrealistic. If the ID card database is breached, people could find their iris scans and finger prints as well as personal data and National Insurance numbers stolen.

"Many of the 600,000 documents recorded as lost or stolen may have been mislaid by individuals, but many others will have fallen into the hands of criminals and even terrorists. It is a worrying loophole in security, and a stark warning of the abuses we are likely to see with ID cards."