Report - Guardian

116 The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005Country Recorded Crime Drug - Homicides Terrorist ID CardsTraffickingIncidents 301% change % change Avg 97-99,/100,0001968-2005 NC: notcompulsoryC: compulsoryEire - 21 +139 1.35 26 No CardsEngland 302 - 10 - 6 1.45 165 uk 303 No CardsScotland - 8 + 9 2.10 uk No CardsDenmark - 8 - 56 1.20 28 No CardsLuxembourg - 5 + 23 0.83 5 ID NCGermany - 5 + 33 1.22 458 ID CFrance - 3 + 29 1.63 1027 ID NCFinland - 2 + 29 2.55 1 ID NCSpain + 1 - 12 2.60 1218 ID CAustria + 1 + 40 0.84 64 ID NCSweden + 2 - 32 1.94 40 ID NCNetherlands + 2 + 119 1.66 77 ID NCItaly + 5 + 18 1.56 405 ID NCPortugal +11 - 9 1.39 51 ID NCGreece +14 + 128 1.69 593 ID CBelgium +18 + 45 1.75 119 ID CTable 4 - Crime Recorded by Police in EU Countries, 1995 - 1999 304These figures do not establish a relationship between cards and levels of crime, but theydo indicate that there is no safe way to assess whether a card system will influencecrime trends. It is certainly the case, according to these figures, that crime trends incountries without a national ID card tend to be in the downward direction.In recent years the UK police have been active in their support for ID cards. It isunderstandable that Ministers continually point to the support from the police. Ingeneral the police see many benefits:“In principle ACPO believes that the introduction of a national IDcard scheme could deliver considerable benefits. Many areas ofpolicing would benefit, not least the ability of the police to betterprotect and serve the public. As with many of our partners we havenever seen ID cards as a panacea—but we do believe they could be a301 Incidents from MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, source: www.tkb.org/Home.jsp.302 England and Wales.303 N. Ireland had 618 incidents.304 International comparisons of criminal justice; 1999 spreadsheet RDS website issue 6/01 Gordon Barclay et al.,May 2001, source: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/.