24 February 2009 – Bill Aitken MSP (Conservative)
Bill Aitken is Conservative MSP for Glasgow, convenor of the Justice Committee in the Scottish Parliament and season-ticket holder at Partick Thistle.
He said that it was generally accepted that the Government required to hold some information about citizens but the ID card and its associated database was going too far.
Going too far
It failed two elementary tests. First, it would not work! In Spain the ID card had not prevented terrorist attacks.
The fact that visitors to the UK for less than three months would not be required to have a card rendered the system pointless.
Second, the economy was likely to get worse. Was £2 billion, the minimum cost that had been mentioned, a sensible investment?
The LSE had estimated £5 billion and that figure was expected to rise (£19 billion was mentioned during later discussion). Could this be justified for dubious benefits?
Unjustified
The Government's requirement for data should be the minimum. The speaker had three cards with photographic ID - parliamentary pass, driving licence and gym card. All were voluntary.
The government's proposals had been so comprehensively rubbished it was difficult to understand why they persisted with them. He emphasized again that the expenditure had never been justified.
Policy
He was asked whether, although David Cameron had said he would abolish ID cards, the Conservatives would change their position once in power. He replied that the economy would drive the policy.
He was also asked about the contradiction between Holyrood's opposition to the UK ID card and the implementation of the Scottish National Entitlement Card.
He replied that it was possible to be supersensitive about data holdings. It was the manner of their use that was the problem. He saw real benefits especially for older people in access to medical records in emergencies.
Discussion
Discussion ranged widely, including:
- Function creep
- The separation of databases
- The Scottish National Entitlement Card
- The lack of a confidentiality culture amongst users of sensitive data
- the wartime identity card and the government's apparent determination to frighten people into believing that an ID card was again necessary