Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 153The Development of This ReportOrigins and ObjectivesOn 29 November 2004, the government published the National Identity Cards Bill. Asthe Bill passed through Parliament, there was increasing concern within business,academia and civil liberties groups about the lack of informed public debate about itsimplications for the United Kingdom. As the Information Commissioner told The Timesnewspaper in August 2004:“My anxiety is that we don't sleepwalk into a surveillance societywhere much more information is collected about people, accessible tofar more people shared across many more boundaries than Britishsociety would feel comfortable with.”In response to that concern, in January 2005 the London School of Economics (LSE)initiated a project to examine in detail the potential impacts and benefits of the IdentityCards Bill. The objectives of the project are to:- Provoke debate about the nature and impact of the National Identity scheme;- Gather a broad spectrum of opinions from diverse stakeholder groups;- Consider possible architectures for delivering the infrastructure;- Interpret the proposed legislation and debate its implications;- Publish a detailed report that explores the key issues and recommendschanges to the Government’s plans where necessary;- Establish a working party that will continue to consider identity issues afterthe publication of the report.Work on the project began in January 2005.The principles outlined in this report are derived from the recommendations of ExpertPanels representing business, government, academia, non-government organisations andindustry/professional bodies. These groups have met on several occasions to debate theimpact of the Identity Cards scheme. Further input has been obtained through one-toonemeetings, documents submitted by Expert Panel members, and the ongoing debatewithin the project team.The Expert Panel findings supported the principle and objectives of the Identity CardsBill, but recommended numerous changes to the system architecture, development andmanagement.