National ID Card Scheme Bites The Dust

If the security best practice guide states that it is not enough to destroy data, it must be seen to have been destroyed, then Home Office minister Damian Green has followed it to the letter.

The data held by the government from the abandoned National ID Card scheme trials has been publicly destroyed, as personally witnessed by Green. Card validity was cancelled last month and this final act removes all evidence – apart from what now must be highly collectable cards still in the hands of the scheme’s volunteers.

A Direct Assault On Our Liberty

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, a long-term opponent of ID cards, expressed his delight that the National Identity Register had been “laid to rest once and for all”.

“The ID cards scheme was a direct assault on our liberty, something too precious to be tossed aside, and something which this government is determined to restore,” he said.

The details of 15,000 trial card-holders were contained within 500 hard disk drives and 100 back-up tapes. These were destroyed in Essex by magnetically wiping them first before the devices were shredded and burnt, in accordance with Cabinet Office regulations.

“Laying ID cards to rest demonstrates the government’s commitment to scale back the power of the state and restore civil liberties,” Green said.

“This is about people having trust in the government to know when it is necessary and appropriate for the state to hold and use personal data,” he added, “and it is about the government placing their trust in the common sense and responsible attitude of people.”

The whole process of the dismantling of the framework was started last May after the Queen’s Speech announced the abandonment. At that time, the coalition government said that the card sytem would go within 100 days (before September, 2010).

According to Home Office figures, the scheme has wasted £5 billion pounds, though Green pointed out that it would have cost an extra £86 million pounds to continue with the implementation. The machines to produce the cards were scrapped because they were custom-built and could not be used for other purposes.