Would you support mandatory identity cards in the UK?

[Dbank]

Non-mandatory cards have been attempted multiple times and failed to be adopted, do you think now is the time to make them mandatory?

They're very handy, if you don't have another form of ID.
They shouldn't be mandatory.

When ID cards were suggested back in 1997 or so they expected everyone to pay £42 for one (how much will that have gone up to now?).

What I didn't like the sound of was the amount of information they were planning to put on this card. IIRC it was full medical details, bank details, work, NI, home address etc. They didn't seem to have any contingency for if it was stolen and you've handed over your entire life history to someone for nefarious purposes. Anything anyone up to no good needed to steal your identity was there on a plate.

If we end up with this Digital version they need to scale back the amount of ID on it so that there is minimal risk of ID theft should someone find a way to access it - and you know they will.

I don’t one and definitely don’t want to have to carry one.

Non UK nationals is a different matter.

They do already carry one.

When I speak to a non resident in my work they often show me their documents/ ID with status on.

Yes, this.

Same as Brit living in another country would have to have ID. And, most Brits need to carry ID on them at all times in a lot of countries they holiday in....but don't because the lack of ID in the UK means they aren't thinking about it, don't have a handy ID card and don't want to carry their passport around with them.

Load of conspiracy theories there!

I’ve had an ID card all my life - it’s not an issue. Only advantages not disadvantages.

I agree in central mainland Europe most citizens have an ID card and are asked to produce it fir example when checking in at an hotel or campsite.

Most people very happy with them. I find it amusing that on X.com and other social media outlets it is nearly always the far right abd elitists that oppose them, one might think they have something to hide lol

A simple ID card would probably be fine (driving license is fine) what is not fine is this beast of a suggestion.. online "Britcard" on your phone... not just a card, linked to a variety of personal details - suggestions that our government might not cock it up this time do not wash well... (especially when the Afgan translators details are still being breached.)

I am far from far right or elitist, but would not support a mobile phone based identity system.

Liberal left here and oppose them.
nothing to hide
not a criminal

I agree. Since about March 2020 I have increasingly lost faith that those in charge are acting in the best interests of the average Joe. There is no clear need/benefit to it - so no.

If someone isn't going to do very minimal research to ascertain that there are already forms of government photo ID available to them, I'm not confident that giving them another optional form of ID is going to solve that problem.

And for the minority who can't get a provisional driving licence for medical reasons, voter authority certificates are another state issued photo ID.

The voters ID card is quite clear that it cannot be used as ID for anything else.

But since it quite clearly proves who a person is and also their age, that's procedural and could be changed. For less than designing and implementing yet another form of photo ID for the minority of adults who can't get a provisional licence and also for whatever reason don't want to apply for a passport- it's not like we could reasonably expect them to be any cheaper given that they'd likely be biometric.

I doubt it practically can't be used as ID for anything else anyway. A retailer who wanted proof someone is 18 or above would clearly have it there, for example.

I researched lots.
A Passport I have no need for because I have no reason to travel abroad.
I don't drive so it never occurred to me that I could get a provisional license that I would never use.
Research told me the voter ID is only for voting.
All that research told me was that all that was available was (non government issued) ID cards like Citizen Card.
Doing more research on those told me that they often aren't accepted and are rubbish.
How much more research should I be doing?
Can you tell me what the "other forms of government ID" are please as you say they apparently exist.

You can't have researched provisional driving licences lots, though. Otherwise you'd have known you could get one without any intention to drive. The only exceptions when you're old enough are those medically ineligible, and you'd have mentioned that by now if you were.

So the answer to your question is that you should've done however much it took for you to find out there's no requirement to actually drive with a provisional. If you were able to look into people's experiences of using Citizen Card enough to decide you didn't want one, you're also capable of checking whether a provisional licence required you to do any driving.

I have sympathy towards people who wouldn't functionally be able to do that, albeit they also would likely face barriers to accessing an ID card, but you're evidently not one of those people.

Oops, got cut off there.

Similarly, there's no need to plan any foreign travel in order to get a passport either. Again, this is something that can be researched. Intending to use the document for ID rather than to travel or drive is not a reason why you can't have one.

Some people of course cannot afford a passport, but then nobody said an ID card would be any cheaper. They were costed at forty odd quid in the noughties.

@OnTheRoof I have been trying to figure out how to get a non passport form of ID for donkeys years - way before Googling information was as common so excuse me if my research wasn't good enough for you.
Driving licences used to be a piece of paper with no photo on which is why for a long time it really didn't occur to me (a non driver) that I would be able to get one that would be acceptable ID.
The main reason I don't want a passport to use solely use as ID is because they are irritating to carry around. It's not like you can't keep it on your wallet.
I did actually have one for a while. I got one because I needed one in order to show photo ID to get married. It has long expired and was never used to travel abroad.
I know I simply could get a replacement to use for ID but my whole point (way back at the beginning of the thread) was I would PREFER that an official government ID in the form of a credit card size card (that would have pretty much the same information as a passport) be available because I don't want to pay £100 odd quid for a cute little cardboard book with fancy pages that is a pain to have to carry around.
What is the other government issued ID available that you mentioned?
You didn't say.

Edit for above "can keep in your wallet"
rather than "can't"

It's more that your research wasn't good enough for you. Photo licences have been available since the 90s. A provisional licence would've met all your requirements as well as likely being cheaper than an ID card, so it's unfortunate that you've been without one all this time when the information was freely accessible, including prior to the internet. There were phone numbers and government departments back then (I'm no spring chicken either haha). Clearly it would've been in your interests to have got a provisional driving licence for ID purposes rather than paying so much more for a passport.

On your latter question, I said 'forms of government ID' and was referring specifically to people who were eligible for passports and provisional driving licences but hadn't researched sufficiently to find that out. You've added 'other' and it looks like you think I meant a different form of ID again aside from that? That's not what I said.

@OnTheRoof I did actually have a provisional driving license back in circa 1996. It was a long green piece of paper. No photo.
I was terrible at driving and couldn't really afford it so I abandoned learning.
Apologies for not knowing when photo licences came in 😂
I have had passports in the past. My last one expired about 4 years ago. That particular one was never used to travel.
Previous ones were. I last went abroad in 1999.
I could apply for a new passport right now this minute if I wanted to and that's fine. For some people though the cost of a passport is an awful lot.
All I ever said on this thread was how much more convenient and possibly cheaper it would be to have a card size version.
Not compulsory. But convenient.
(Apologies for miss reading your comment about "other government ID")

Yes and I dont understand why the UK is dragging its heels on this. So many people dont have a passport and drivers licence - and refuse to get them.

Does anyone know why the UK Government aren't acting on this?

No need to apologise to me, I'm not the one who's experienced the inconvenience.

But the main point I'd make now is that there's no reason to suppose an ID card would be cheaper than a passport, and especially not a provisional. With any form of state issued ID some people are going to face barriers to getting and maintaining one, and that includes ID cards. I say maintain because any photo ID has to be reasonably regularly updated otherwise there's not much point.

I have plenty of ways available to identify myself to people who need to know. I have absolutely no need of an ID card, and I will sit and rot in prison before I ever carry a "compulsory" one. It's of no benefit to me whatsoever and completely illiberal, and you have to question the motivations of a government which wants to impose a compulsion upon every single citizen to be able to produce ID upon request. It's wholly at odds with concepts of presumed innocence, right to anonymity, and the preserve of Authoritarian/Police States.

Objected to this entirely when it was proposed by Blair's government, still feel no differently. If anything my views are more entrenched because our Government is already showing a reckless authoritarianism, so there is even less reason to give them the benefit of doubt and assume their motivations are indeed, benign.

This entirely keels over before it starts for the simple reason that even in 2025, not everyone has need of, owns, or indeed, carries a mobile phone around.

My guess is practicalities.

There's at least a significant minority of the public who really don't like the idea on principle. It would either have to be very subsidised, unattractive for obvious reasons, or lots of people simply wouldn't be able to afford one. The existing range of state issued IDs are available to the vast majority of the population, and for those who can't get a provisional and don't have a passport it would be possible to expand usage for the voter ID card. People who fall within the gaps now would still do so if the state provided another form of ID that costs money, needs maintaining and requires a process.

It's just a massive faff for something that isn't guaranteed to have the benefits advocates expect, and could easily turn into a banana skin.