Queen set to outlaw ID cards today

The Home Office said that it expected the identity documents bill will pass into law on 21 December. As a result, existing ID cards will be invalid for use in a month's time. Home office minister Damian Green said the bill's passing will also allow work to begin on the secure destruction of the National Identity Register. "Photographs, fingerprints and personal information that were submitted as part of the application process for an ID card will be destroyed within two months," he wrote in an article for Guardian.co.uk . The Home Office added that the Identity and Passport Service will place a countdown on its website to show how the days remaining before the cards become invalid, and all cardholders will be informed in writing. It added that £292m had been spent on the scheme, but the cancellation will stop a further outlay of £835m until 2019. The act also closes the Office of the Identity Commissioner. Phil Booth, national coordinator of campaign group NO2ID, said the law does not end the power of the government to enact data sharing powers across government, and leaves a biometric identity system in place for people from outside the European Economic Area. "Do the principles that led to the scrapping of ID cards for EU citizens not apply to those other legal residents?" he said. "This partial abolition is an excellent first step, but the government should now take the courage to override the deep laid bureaucratic plans, and finish the job," he added. "NO2ID will not stop until the database state powers that would allow mass surveillance and official trafficking in personal information are erased for good." Green added that the freedom bill due early next year is likely to outlaw the fingerprinting of children without parental consent, further regulate CCTV and change the rules on retaining people's DNA. "These measures are only the start," he added. "In the following months and years, we will continue to act decisively to defend civil liberties while protecting the public. I hope we have put the era of ever increasing state intervention in our private lives behind us forever."