The NIR is the database that will sit behind the proposed
Government identity cards. Ministers originally discounted the idea
of using existing systems because they wanted a brand new system
that did not duplicate the flaws of present systems. That decision
has now been reversed.
"Doing something sensible is not necessarily a U-turn,” the Home
Secretary John Reid told a press conference yesterday. “We have
decided it is lower risk, more efficient and faster to take the
infrastructure that already exists, although the data will be drawn
from other sources.”
Creating a single database had proved highly controversial.
Security experts warned that putting all that data in one single
place was high risk, and the procurement process for a system was
behind schedule by more than a year.
Anti-ID card group No2ID says that the move at least solves one
of the problems it has highlighted. "No2ID has repeatedly warned
the government that keeping data on a single system would be
insecure and vulnerable to attack, and that the sheer size of the
IT project meant that it would be virtually unworkable," said a
No2ID statement. "The government has realised that we were right
and has backtracked."
The information will be divided between three existing databases
and mixed in with non-NIR information. The Department for Work and
Pensions database will hold biographical information, biometric
data, such as fingerprints or eye scans, will be held on the Home
Office system and the Identity and Passport Service system will
hold the remaining information.
The announcement of the separation of databases was made within
the just-published Strategic Action Plan For The National Identity
Scheme. That document seems to suggest that the Government has
taken into account the opposition of many groups to a single
database, and contradicts its previous assertions about
security.
"[The] separation is important in guarding against malicious or
fraudulent damage to the NIR, since it would require unauthorised
and undetected changes to these separate systems and the
corresponding card," said the document.
The Government said that the cost of the system is likely to
remain unchanged at $5.4 billion over 10 years.
