More details have emerged regarding the Identity Documents Bill proposed by the new Tory Lib-Dem coalition government.
The bill will repeal the Identity Cards Act 2006, bringing the scheme to an end by August 2010. If the bill is made law, all existing identity cards will become invalid on September 3, 2010. An estimated 15,000 people have already voluntarily paid £30 for the card - they will not receive a refund for their card, which was slowly being introduced under plans set out by the former Labour government.
The National Identity Register itself, which was to hold the details of all UK citizens, will be "physically destroyed" under the new bill.
The bill will retain provisions in the Identity Cards Act which proscribed the possession or making of false identity documents other than ID cards, covering such official documents as passports and driving licences. Immigration identity cards for foreign nationals are not affected by the new measures.
During the second reading of the bill on June 9, Home Secretary Theresa May stated that: "the national identity card scheme represents the worst of government. It is intrusive and bullying, ineffective and expensive. It is an assault on individual liberty that does not promise a greater good.
"The bill is therefore partly symbiotic. It sends a message that the government is going to do business in a different way. We are the servants of the people and not their masters."
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