SMITH AND CAMPBELL CALL FOR END TO ID CARDS

1.00.00pm GMT Tue 15th Jan 2008

North East Fife Parliamentarians Sir Menzies Campbell MP and Iain Smith MSP have repeated their calls for the Government to scrap its plans for a controversial ID card scheme after the revelations that in 2007, 37 million pieces of personal information was lost.

The law bringing in ID cards has already been passed by the Labour Government and soon most citizens will have to pay for an identity card.

"The expensive identity cards scheme is based on the government storing large amounts of information about each one of us on a central database," said Sir Menzies and Mr Smith

"But in 2007 the Government stumbled from one data loss crisis to another. The worst example came in November when the Government lost the personal details of all 25 million families with children. That has put the privacy of every family in North East Fife at risk.

"The dangers of putting so much information about every citizen in the UK into one central database are clear to everyone except, it seems, the Government. Ministers are in denial when they argue that the information will be safe and people's privacy will not be undermined.

"Liberal Democrats are leading the battle to end the ID cards scheme. The plan to make everyone carry a piece of plastic should be buried before it ends up as another expensive government fiasco.

"The scheme will be a bureaucratic nightmare. It won't prevent illegal working. It won't help stop crime or terrorism. If the government really wants to make an impact on crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, the money it has earmarked for this scheme would be far better spent on more police and intelligence officers. That is what the Liberal Democrats would do," concluded Sir Menzies and Mr Smith.

ENDS