News

ID cards to be scrapped within 100 days

New Home Secretary Theresa May has confirmed ID cards will be binned within 100 days, if the law gets parliamentary approval.

27 May 2010

ID cards are set to be binned within 100 days as part of the coalition Government's first piece of legislation.

Theresa May, the new Home Secretary and Conservative MP, confirmed the move in a statement but admitted it needed "swift parliamentary approval" to reach this target.

Deputy Prime Minister and long-standing critic of the scheme, Nick Clegg, praised the move, which was one of the major victories his Liberal Democrat party won when coming to a coalition agreement.

"The wasteful, bureaucratic and intrusive ID card scheme represents everything that has been wrong with government in recent years," he said in a statement.

"By taking swift action to scrap it, we are making it clear that this government won't sacrifice people's liberty for the sake of Ministers' pet projects."

The National Identity Register will also be dropped as part of the bill called the Identity Documents Bill and the Government claims the cancelling of these two schemes will save the tax payer 86 million over the next four years and prevent ongoing costs of 800 million had the scheme continued.

Clegg insisted though this was just the start when it came to a freer society.

"Cancelling the scheme and abolishing the National Identity Register is a major step in dismantling the surveillance state - but ID cards are just the tip of the iceberg," he added.

"Today marks the start of a series of radical reforms to restore hard-won British freedoms."

The ID card scheme was introduced by the Labour Government back in 2008 but gained many critics along the way.

Although only a matter of thousands have been issued, the new coalition Government will not be giving refunds to those who became part of the scheme at a cost of 30 per card.