Sunday, October 21, 2007
ID Cards - The London Plan To Hijack Scots Pensioners Bus Passes
The UK government is looking at ways to turn the bus pass which entitles one in four people in Scotland to free travel and reduced price access to leisure services, into an ID card linked to the National Identity Register.
The Home Office in London see this as a way to push forward the ID card scheme at a reduced cost, a sneaky move that will be strongly resisted by the Scottish government and a majority of MSPs at Holyrood, who have long made it clear that any ID card introduced by London should not be used north of the border to link devolved public services.
Bus passes could be used, say London think-tank New Local Government Network, to document citizens' mental health and their "reporting a crime, attending an accident and emergency department or claiming benefits.
The Scottish government has claimed it has been excluded from crucial discussions and warns that any data-grab attempt would be illegal.
A Scottish government spokesman said: "The Entitlement Card system has been designed to ensure that all data is handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Each local authority acts as the data controller for its own residents.
"Accredited local authority and passenger transport staff have secure access to the system. No-one else has access. This information could not be passed to the Home Office."
In 2006 Holyrood's then Labour administration passed a law, known as Section 57, which allows the state to use Citizen's Accounts to hoard information about Scots on a huge scale. Data on everything from debt to shopping to sexuality could be legally procured, stored and passed on. Critics are fighting to have the law repealed.
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The Home Office in London see this as a way to push forward the ID card scheme at a reduced cost, a sneaky move that will be strongly resisted by the Scottish government and a majority of MSPs at Holyrood, who have long made it clear that any ID card introduced by London should not be used north of the border to link devolved public services.
Bus passes could be used, say London think-tank New Local Government Network, to document citizens' mental health and their "reporting a crime, attending an accident and emergency department or claiming benefits.
The Scottish government has claimed it has been excluded from crucial discussions and warns that any data-grab attempt would be illegal.
A Scottish government spokesman said: "The Entitlement Card system has been designed to ensure that all data is handled in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Each local authority acts as the data controller for its own residents.
"Accredited local authority and passenger transport staff have secure access to the system. No-one else has access. This information could not be passed to the Home Office."
In 2006 Holyrood's then Labour administration passed a law, known as Section 57, which allows the state to use Citizen's Accounts to hoard information about Scots on a huge scale. Data on everything from debt to shopping to sexuality could be legally procured, stored and passed on. Critics are fighting to have the law repealed.
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Labels: Freedom, ID Cards, Politics, Scotland, SNP, Surveillance
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