DIGITAL identification should not be brought in “under the auspices of the Home Office", a leading human rights charity has warned.
Akiko Hart, the director of Liberty, said that the UK Government’s plans to revive a digital ID scheme from the New Labour era would not help ministers’ aims to curb irregular migration.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with The National, Hart said that there was “no evidence” that bringing in ID cards would tackle the “underground economy”.
Labour are considering bringing in digital ID cards as a means to reduce illegal migration.
The civil liberty pressure group boss claimed that past arguments against the scheme – that it was an infringement of people’s privacy – had become “niche” and outdated.
But Hart (above) said that the scheme should not be led by the Home Office, claiming that “most people” would not trust the department with their data.
The Home Office has been repeatedly criticised as dysfunctional and chaotic. Sacked borders watchdog David Neal last year claimed that the department was holding “inexcusably awful” data and blasted the poor safeguarding of children in asylum hotels.
And a select committee report from February lifted the lid on the Home Office’s “dysfunctional culture of repeated mistakes” after it was revealed that the department had wasted nearly £100 million on a former prison to house asylum seekers which was riddled with asbestos.
Hart said that a digital ID scheme launched with the intention of reducing irregular migration would fail British citizens.
She said: “For us the question is what would good digital ID look like and what would those checks and balances be? What kind of checks and balances can we put around ID to ensure that it works for users, as in us?
“For example, having firewalls around sensitive government databases, making sure that it’s not mandatory, that it’s optional, ensuring that there is encrypted protection and unlinkability, that your data that sits in different domains – whether that’s your health data over here and your travel data over here – are not connected. Those are some of the things that a good digital ID system would look like.”
But she warned: “That can’t happen under the auspices of the Home Office. One of the questions is: Would you trust the Home Office with all of your sensitive data? To which I think the answer for most people would be no, probably not.
“Anything that starts off with the purpose of trying to use digital ID to control migration, A) doesn’t meet that test because it won’t, you’ll still have irregular migration and B) is starting off with all of the wrong principles in terms of looking after our data in a secure way.
“If we had a different conversation, then we could talk about what good digital ID would look like but that’s not the starting point at the moment because it’s Home Office-driven.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology said: "Our GOV.UK Wallet will allow users to securely store existing government-issued documents, like a driving licence, on their phone and use them easily in-person and online.
“In addition, private companies following government rules are already carrying out hundreds of thousands of these checks every month, making it easier for people to get jobs, housing, and access other vital services.
“Nothing about this work will be mandatory - people will still have the option to use physical documents if they prefer."
