City workers get hi-tech ID cards

13 April 2012

BRITAIN'S first hi-tech identity cards are being issued to London workers today, it has emerged.

The cards, containing details of credit history, criminal records and immigration status, are being introduced to combat identity theft and illegal working. Hundreds of staff at City banks, blue chip companies and government departments are being issued with them. Thousands more are expected to follow.

But critics condemned the scheme, which is being administered by a private-sector company, as an 'unprecedented invasion of people's privacy'.

Phil Booth, national co-ordinator of the No 2 ID campaign, said: 'This is very worrying. Soon there will be no aspect of our lives that isn't sucked into the identity system.'

ARE YOU SHOCKED? Is this a blatant infringement of civil liberties or a development whose time has come? Have your say on our message boards

The cards are linked to a database containing personal details gathered during a vetting process and held by private investigators Crocker Stolten. Unique identifiers such as fingerprints can also be added. Former fraud squad officer Lionel Stolten, the man behind the London Identicheck scheme, said:

'Companies need to know who is entering their buildings and that those people really are who they say they are, especially major corporations which hold sensitive information.'

Most of the cards are being issued to foreign nationals, who work as contract cleaners, restaurant and mailroom staff. Workers at Birkin Cleaning Services, whose clients include the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence, and MailSource UK, whose clients include Barclays, Shell, Deutsche Bank, the BBC and Channel 4, will be among the first to receive the cards.

There is already growing controversy over government plans to introduce national ID cards from 2008, to combat identity theft, organised crime and terrorism, and help stamp out benefit fraud. The cards, which are not expected to become compulsory before 2012, will carry either fingerprints or an eye scan.

But Mr Stolten said: 'I doubt the Government's plan for ID cards will include thorough searches of people's identity. It would take an army of staff.'

Figures issued by Equifax, a credit rating firm leading the fight against ID fraud, suggest 31% of Londoners have already been a victim.

Equifax's external affairs director Neil Munroe said: 'Companies are increasingly looking at more checks on people they employ. It protects the organisation.'

MORE ABOUT

Banking