A draconian regime of fines, which would hit families at times of marriage and death, is being drawn up by ministers to enforce the Identity Card scheme.

Millions of people, from struggling students to newly-wed women and bereaved relatives, will face a system of penalties, netting more than £40 million for the Treasury.

People would be fined up to £1,000 for failing to return a dead relative's ID card, while women who marry will have to pay at least £30 for a new card if they want to use their married name, risking a £1,000 fine if they do not comply.

The revelations will fuel debate over ID cards in the countdown to their nationwide introduction, which the Government claims will boost security, tackle identity fraud and prevent illegal working. But costs are soaring and the technology has failed in tests.

The Government says people will have to pay £30 for a simple ID card, or more than £90 for one with a passport. Experts, however, claim that the cost of a combined card could be as high as £300, pushing the implementation costs beyond £20 billion.

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David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said the fines revelation shows that the scheme "will hit the taxpayer not the terrorists" and is "just another Labour stealth tax".

He said: "It is shocking that the Government is considering charges and fines on people at some of the most sensitive times in life. The Conservatives would scrap this plastic poll tax and invest the savings in practical measures to improve security."

The first cards will be issued by the Identity and Passport Service to passport applicants in 2009 and will become compulsory from 2010.

As well as a picture, the card will carry a microchip holding biometric information such as fingerprints, iris or facial scans. Everyone over 16 applying for a passport will have these details added to a National Identity Register from 2008.

The extent of the fines for minor infringements is revealed in written answers from John Reid, the Home Secretary, and other ministers. They show that the Government is drawing up sinister sounding "guidance on death registration" which will order bereaved families to return the card of their deceased relative within a specified period. Failure to do so would carry a £1,000 fine under the "invalidity and surrender of ID cards" section of the Identity Cards Act 2006.

Joan Ryan, the Home Office minister, said that charges would apply "if a person wished to add a married surname to his or her register entry". Based on an estimate of 311,000 marriages a year, that would net up to £9 million a year for the Exchequer.

People would be charged at least £30 for lost or stolen cards. Based on the 930,000 driving licences lost or stolen each year, this would earn the Treasury more than £28 million a year, say the Tories.

Mr Davis said the potential scale of the fines — those two areas of card "infringement" alone could bring in up to £40 million a year for the Treasury — proved that ID cards were a new stealth tax.

In a separate plan that the Tories say could hit millions of students, Mr Reid admitted that applicants will be asked for "all current alternative addresses". Failure to update the register with details such as term-time halls of residence could result in a £1,000 fine.

There was also anger over the disclosure that all fees and fines will be paid directly into the Treasury's central funds for general spending and not go towards running the scheme.

 

because a piece of plastic is so effective fighting terrorism -_- How about piling that money wasted on them into dealing with it instead

grim reading, but stealth taxes were never this governments own invention.. every government did it.

grim reading, but stealth taxes were never this governments own invention.. every government did it.

 

Happen so mate, but this Govt seems to have it down to a fine art.... <_<

 

B/astards...

because a piece of plastic is so effective fighting terrorism -_- How about piling that money wasted on them into dealing with it instead

 

Exactly... They claimed the 'pin and chip' band cards were fraud-proof as well... Are they fukk... My old bank/debit card used to have my photo on the back, frankly, I felt that was a better anti-fraud measure...

 

I just dont believe for a bloody second that ID cards are going to stop terrorism, all the July 7th bombers were Brits born and bred, so they'd've ALL had ID cards anyway as UK citizens, how the hell would an ID card system have prevented these guys blowing themselves up...? The mandatory ID card system in Spain didn't stop the Madrid bombing did it...? And those guys were all from Morocco.....

 

Sorry, but it's bullsh!t as far as I'm concerned, and I absolutely refuse to have one, I'm actually willing to go to prison to defend my rights NOT to be put on some Quasi-Orwellian DNA, retina or fingerprint database... I dont buy the arguments for ID card schemes, it wont protect us from Terrorism, it wont combat ID theft or organised crime...

 

The only thing that might prevent Terrorism is spending more money training more Police and Intelligence Officers... But naaaaah, this Govt would rather blow 20 million quid updating Trident or blow even MORE billions on a stupid ID card scheme..... <_< Not to mention the billions they're gonna have to spend to build more prisons to imprison the hundreds of thousands of dissenters who are gonna tell these b/astards to get stuffed....

Sorry, but it's bullsh!t as far as I'm concerned, and I absolutely refuse to have one, I'm actually willing to go to prison to defend my rights NOT to be put on some Quasi-Orwellian DNA, retina or fingerprint database... I dont buy the arguments for ID card schemes, it wont protect us from Terrorism, it wont combat ID theft or organised crime...

I would do exactly the same thing -_- I have nothing to hide but I see no reason whatsoever why we should have these cards let alone the data that's gonna be stored on them.

 

This is scandalous :o its just another way of gettin more money out of paying citizens of the UK :angry: Theses are going to be just as bad as traffic wardens who wait outside your car till the last second and fine you. How dare they do this, although it is to crack down on terrorism and it will probably work the sky-high amount of fines they saying are ridiculous.

Furthermore people will probably find a way to get around these cards and create fake ones, a waste of needed tax-payers money i think, well the fines are. :angry: :angry:

This is scandalous :o its just another way of gettin more money out of paying citizens of the UK :angry: Theses are going to be just as bad as traffic wardens who wait outside your car till the last second and fine you. How dare they do this, although it is to crack down on terrorism and it will probably work the sky-high amount of fines they saying are ridiculous.

Furthermore people will probably find a way to get around these cards and create fake ones, a waste of needed tax-payers money i think, well the fines are. :angry: :angry:

 

Matt, they WILL NOT WORK... That's the whole point, no ifs, buts or maybes it wont... Tell me, just how the hell is having an ID card scheme going to stop things like July 7th where all the bombers were Brits born and bred and would actually HAVE ID cards....? Did a National ID card scheme in Spain stop the Madrid bombing, carried out by NON Spanish nationals...? I repeat - IT WILL NOT WORK!!!! We are being lied to, well, no surprises there really, this Govt wouldn't know how to tell the fukkin' truth to the people of this country if its life depended on it....

 

I will never pay for an ID card the government can **** off, if one was provided for free then yes I would have no problem with it but not 1p will ever leave my wallet for something like this

I will never pay for an ID card the government can **** off, if one was provided for free then yes I would have no problem with it but not 1p will ever leave my wallet for something like this

 

Whether it's free or not means nowt to me, it's the principle more than the cost.... How can you trust a Govt who wants to put us all on some bloody great National database...? David Icke was right, we ARE living in a prison, only one without bars....

 

Whether it's free or not means nowt to me, it's the principle more than the cost.... How can you trust a Govt who wants to put us all on some bloody great National database...? David Icke was right, we ARE living in a prison, only one without bars....

 

There is already violations of our privacy left right and centre, infact we don't have any privacy so I don't think that anything that these ID cards would hold would have anything on them that would further invade our privacy from the already absurd levels we have now, we are living in a big brother society, I can see some advantages in the scheme like chavs having to show one before getting alcohol or whatever but it will do nothing for the fight against terrorism nor do I want to pay nor will pay for an ID card

 

Also it will turn this country into more of a police state than it is now as presumably the police will stop people randomly in the street and make them present their ID card

Edited December 27, 200618 yr by Kimi Raikkonen