ID cards for foreign nationals - government sets out agenda
As part of the BIA (the Border and Immigration Agency)’s delivery of its Borders, Immigration and Identify Action Plan which was launched in December of 2006 - on 6 March 2008 the Minister of State for Borders and Immigration Liam Byrne issued the government’s policy statement Introducing compulsory identity cards for foreign nationals. The document sets out the government’s plans to require all foreign nationals to possess identity cards. It pledges that by 2014/15 90% of foreign nationals will have identity cards.
The plan was introduced by the Home Secretary in a speech to Demos, the independent think tank institute, on the same day as the issue of the immigration minister’s statement. Interestingly in her speech the Home Secretary addressed the nightmare scenario of a state obsessed with surveillance which forms the backdrop to the current BBC thriller “The Last Enemy”. She urged her audience not to regard the introduction of identity cards as chipping away at people’s personal liberties, stating:
“Rather than thinking of the state as an opponent of our liberties, set on thwarting our personal ambitions, in this context the role of government agencies is to defend our interests, to offer reassurance and trust, and to working in the most effective way possible to ease and to enable our lives.”
The Home Secretary emphasised that there will however be no compulsion upon people who do not fall within the category of foreign nationals subject to immigration control to possess an identity card.
The policy statement indicates that via powers introduced by the UK Borders Act foreign nationals who are subject to immigration control will be required to possess identity cards (or biometric immigration documents as they are called at section 5 of the Act). Regulations having this effect will come into force in November of this year, when the first identity cards will be issued.
The statement explains that it was felt appropriate to phase in the introduction of compulsory cards by immigration application type, prioritising those types which are most frequently abused. Top of the list – according to the BIA’s research – are students. Other “high risk” categories are people granted discretionary leave to remain in the UK, people married to or in common law partnerships with people settled in the UK, the children of people settled in the UK and people who have work permits.
So from November students who are applying to vary or extend their leave to remain will be issued with cards. From April of 2009 the obligation to possess an identity card will be extended to people who are applying to extend or to vary their leave to remain as the spouse or common law partner of people settled in the UK and those granted discretionary leave, and students admitted under Tier 4 of the points based system will also be required to obtain cards.
All high risk categories will be subject to this obligation from April of 2010, and then from April of 2011 all new applicants for leave to enter or for leave to remain, including applicants for indefinite leave or settlement will have to have the cards.
Sponsors (i.e. colleges and employers) will have to keep a copy of the student or employee’s identity card and to make the copy available to the BIA upon request.
The final stage will be completed in 2013 and 2014, when foreign nationals already settled in the UK will be issued with identity cards.
In the statement Mr Byrne has made it clear that foreign nationals subject to this obligation will not be required to have their identity cards with them at all times, although:
“they are likely to find it useful to produce the card as a means of identification for work, study or travel”.
The cards will be issued by expanding the facilities which are currently used by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (“the DVLA”).
This announcement marks the first stage of the implementation of the identity card regime – following lengthy and heated debates over the last few years.
