ID card scheme faces new stumbling block over fingerprinting

Jacqui Smith today admitted that it will be impossible to include fingerprints of some people on the Government's ID cards.

The revelation will raise new doubts about the effectiveness of the scheme. But the Home Secretary claimed such difficulties were "wholly exceptional" and said efforts to obtain alternative biometric data which could be used instead were under way.

Her admission, however, is likely to be seized on by opponents as further evidence that the £4.7billion-ID card scheme will be unworkable as well as unnecessarily expensive.

The Home Secretary's comments came at a Westminster news conference as she unveiled a first identity card for foreign nationals.

The card is due to be released in November for all foreign students from outside the European Economic area - the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein - and to migrants seeking marriage visas.

The card is due to be rolled out to all foreign nationals who visit from outside the European Economic area for more than six months by 2011 and Ms Smith said it would improve national security and help combat fraud and illegal immigration.

She denied that problems with obtaining fingerprints from a minority of people - such as the elderly or those with missing fingers - would undermine the scheme but admitted that the Government was still working to find a solution to such difficulties.

"It is so exceptional that it will not undermine the fundamental nature of the scheme," she said. "In the very, very few cases of people who cannot give a fingerprint we are looking at mechanisms to deal with those categories. It will be wholly exceptional."

Despite her assurances, the Home Secretary's admission is likely to be seized upon by opponents who claim that problems with obtaining biometric data will undermine the effectiveness of the scheme.

Earlier today, ministers were accused of picking on "soft targets" as the card was launched to the public.

Opponents claimed that ministers risked harming race relations by engaging in "populist bullying" of foreign migrants.

Phil Booth, the national co-ordinator of the campaign group NO2ID, said: "To suggest that ID cards are somehow connected to immigration policy, Jacqui Smith is deliberately engaging in populist bullying of the soft targets - anonymous individuals seeking marriage visas or education - those who have no choice but to keep quiet and comply."

The Tories have already promised to cancel the scheme if elected at the next election and the Liberal Democrats are similarly opposed.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of pressure group Liberty, also attacked the scheme and said: "Picking on foreigners first is divisive politics - as costly to our race relations as our purses."