Dropsafe

by Alec Muffett

People ‘can’t wait for ID cards’

Will someone who can’t wait for an ID card, please make themselves known to me?

I want to know what they think it will improve?

BBC NEWS | Politics | People ‘can’t wait for ID cards’

Jacqui Smith says public demand means people will be able to pre-register for an ID card within the next few months.

The cards will be available for all from 2012 but she said: “I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don’t want to wait that long.”

The home secretary made the claim as she unveiled revised ID scheme plans.

Opposition parties say they would scrap the ID card scheme. The Tories call it a “complete waste of money”. The Lib Dems call it a “laminated poll tax”.

They accused Ms Smith of backtracking on plans to issue ID cards in 2009 for all airside workers, by announcing they would pilot them at just two airports.

The first biometric cards are being issued, to students from outside the EU and marriage visa holders, this month and it had been planned to make them compulsory for all 200,000 airside workers from 2009.

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Comments

2 responses to “People ‘can’t wait for ID cards’”

  1. Simon

    They are 42GBP cheaper than the shiny new biometric passports, so I guess that might persuade some folk who need proof of identity?!

    Now since the consular fees on passports are only £15.22 if the Home Office were to “out source” passports to the Identity card people (or just let us use the cards as passports) we could save £42 – £15.22 = £26.78 per passport.

    The problem with duplication of effort in government is it plainly shows up how horrendously inefficient one of the departments is. No doubt the ID cards will get more expensive when the Home Office realize how bad this makes the Passport Office look.

    Interestingly the Passport Office website gives a “price comparison” chart for passport fees. Perhaps I should shop around? But they don’t map the currencies into GBP because “currencies fluctuate more than passport fees”. Now that isn’t strictly true of UK passport fees! Which were 18GBP in 1992 or just under 24 GBP in 2008 money if you adjust for inflation, rather than 72GBP which is the current fee.

    To save folks the effort, of the 49 countries given only 4 are more expensive than the UK: Switzerland, Japan, Australia and Turkey, all the others are cheaper. Australia offer discounts to the elderly, and Turkey has a range of passports, so direct comparisons may be slightly unfair.

    Reply
  2. Chris Samuel

    Cool, so now I’ve got 2 of the top 5 most expensive passports! 😉

    I don’t fancy collecting the set though..

    Reply

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