Published: FT Letters, 26 October 2010
Sir,
The Government has just announced that it intends to set up a cross-departmental identity fraud unit, targeting what it rightly describes as a growing problem.
I welcome this initiative. However, the paradox is the Government's decision not simply to do away with identity cards and the associated identity register (which would have given us, for the first time, a clear idea of who is legitimately in the country and on what basis), but with second-generation biometrics for passports as well.
It will be impossible for any new unit to function properly without the tools to do so. One of those tools would have been those biometrics. Ensuring that we can "own" our identity, and using the best and most up-to-date methods of allowing us to secure what is, after all, something which each of us holds dear, has to be the task for the future.
I wish this endeavour well - but I regret that, in throwing out the identity card, the government has thrown the baby out with the bath water.
Rt Hon DAVID BLUNKETT MP (Lab, Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough)
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