ID registration already a UK requirement

[...] The discussion on Any Questions? was predicated upon a mistaken belief that this law has still to be passed and could yet be abandoned by Gordon Brown.

But it has been on the Statute Book for a year.

It is true that another Act will be needed to make ID cards a universal requirement.

However, from next year, they will be compulsory for all non-UK nationals staying longer than three months and, from the following year, they will be automatically issued to UK citizens on renewal of a passport.

When one group has them, ID registration must either be extended to everyone or scrapped, otherwise we would have two classes of citizen.

From 2009, if you want a passport, you will be entered on to the ID register.

There is no choice. It will not, however, be a legal requirement to carry the ID card or to show it to a police officer in the street. Until such time as registration is made mandatory for everybody - which will not be in this parliament - the principal penalty for refusing to co-operate is that you will not be able to travel abroad. Read more
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