|
|
|
|
|
|
by kwhitefoot
2308 days ago
|
|
|
> it involves setting up a system similar to national ID cards No it doesn't. We have a register of everyone resident or tax paying here in Norway and no ID cards. The government keeps on trying to make ID cards happen but the relevant departments always seem to be dragging their feet. You already have a national register in the UK: National Insurance numbers. The difficulty is that it is simply not properly joined up with taxes, banking, etc. I very much doubt that there is any serious political objection to joining these databases amongst the general public; as you say the civil service departments feathering their own nests is the biggest problem. |
|
|
Weirdly National Insurance numbers are not always unique, and people can have more than one. Also while they are used by for tax and benefits (HMRC and DWP) other departments have a different ID number, the biggest being NHS numbers, military service numbers, passport numbers and driving license numbers (DHSC, MOD, Home Office, Department for Transport). So you’d need to unify it, under one of these, effectively creating a ‘National ID Number’, even if you don’t call it that it’d be spun as that by opponents (libertarians, big brother watch etc). You’re probably right in that the public probably aren't too worried about it, and would probably be appalled to see the waste that goes on as a result of it not existing. But politicians and parts of the media will get riled up by it.