It looks like the government is squaring up for yet another fight over identity cards. Speaking at a fringe event today, Liam Byrne, home officer minister for nationality, citizenship and immigration, said they were very much back on the agenda, writes Anna Bawden.
The database behind ID cards may well be linked to other government systems such as the criminal records bureau database to make things "faster, more effective", he said.
"One of the key tasks over the next 6 months will be to establish what are the particular applications [of the id database] that are going to save people time and money."
These could be criminal records bureau checks and checks on social care providers, he said, though no decisions have been taken. And he admitted that cost cutting will be a priority.
How he proposes to safeguard personal data against abuse and fraud if systems link up is unclear. But he said we should " trust government a little bit".
