The British government recently scrapped plans to build a giant new computer system that would help with national identity cards.  Instead of building one multi-billion-pound system, information will instead be stored on three separate databases.

While Home Secretary John Reid said it would save him money, others still see the ID card project as a huge undertaking.  All non-Europeans already in the UK will have to register fingerprints or iris scans from 2008.

The computer business project will take the National Identity Register (NIR), a controversial group responsible for updated seucirty 5.4 billion pounds over the next ten years.

Low Risk Security

Because the information will be spread across three IT systems, including the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information Service that holds national insurance records, security will apparently be better.  Reid emphatically denies that IT companies have wasted millions of pounds preparing for the new system that never happened.  Still, the government has spent 35 million on IT consultants since the project began in 2004.  Apparently it is lower risk, more efficient and faster to rework the current infrastructure.

Computer Business:  Iris Scans

Biometric data will be stored on systems that are currently being used for asylum seekers and biographical information will be stored in the DWP systems.  Foreign nationals outside the European Union already in the UK will be forced to register fingerprints and iris scans starting in 2008.  Reid hopes this will help decrease the number of those staying in the UK fraudulently.  Those outside the European Union will not be able to get a National Insurance number in the UK without biometric identities.

ID cards are set to exist starting in 2009 and be required for anyone applying for a passport starting in 2010.  There has been controversy within the computer business about the impact on civil liberties.  The card itself will offer basic identification information such as name, address, gender, date of birth and a photo.  A microchip will hold all the biometric information.

Many experts in the computer business are still seeing the ID cards and the security systems as a financial disaster and are worried about what it could mean for money loss. 

Blogged By:  Computer Consulting Kit