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British ID card legislation finally passes after standoff

British lawmakers agreed on new legislation to introduce ID cards on Wednesday, after the House of Lords accepted a compromise deal from the government over plans that required all citizens applying for passports to also get a national identity card.

The bill was finally passed after a prolonged standoff between the House of Commons and members of the Lords, which rejected the bill five times in the past. The compromise was backed 287-60, with only the opposition Liberal Democrats still opposing it.

Under the plans, anyone applying for a passport before January 2010 can opt out of having an ID card, but will be put on a national database. The government was forced into a compromise after initially demanding that all applicants for passports in 2008 must apply for an ID card too.

Lawmakers in the Lords had argued that the government's proposals were introducing compulsory ID cards by stealth. The Commons confirmed the amended bill later on Wednesday, voting 301 to 84 in favor of the amendment.

Prime Minister Tony Blair had wanted to make the cards mandatory for all residents of Britain, saying the cards would be key to fighting terrorism, crime and illegal immigration.

In order to introduce compulsory ID cards after 2010 the government would need to pass a separate bill at a future date, the Home Office said.

"The amendment preserves the integrity of the National Identity Register by ensuring that everyone who applies for or renews a passport or other designated document has their biometric information and other identity details placed on the register," Home Office Minister Andy Burnham said.

Critics had argued that requiring cards for Britons who apply for passports is a way of forcing them on the public, and the cards would be an expensive and unnecessary threat to civil liberties.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who had been insisting the Commons would prevail over the upper chamber since the standoff started, conceded that he would consider a "workable" compromise earlier on Wednesday.

If the "ping pong" continued between the two chambers, the government may have been forced into calling on the Parliament Act, a little-used law the government can use to force legislation through against the Lords' will in a time-consuming process.

If now the bill becomes law as expected, it would give Britain its first national identity card since World War II.

Civil libertarians say the cards, which would store biometric data such as fingerprints or iris scans, would be an unwarranted invasion of privacy, and claim they will cost billions of pounds to introduce.

Critics claimed the compromise changed very little.

"The issue has always been the database, not the card," said Guy Herbert, general secretary of the NO2ID campaign. "The card is just a distraction, like the magician who shows you a handkerchief while he picks your pocket."
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