ID card rollout begins

[Peter Tomlinson]

Ian G Batten wrote:
> On Sat, September 27, 2008 10:17, Nicholas Bohm wrote:
>   
>> If you're trusted and willing to pay, you can check UK passport validity
>> - see www.ips.gov.uk/identity/working-pvs.asp
>>     
> As you say, UK passports only.  Which isn't really the issue when checking
> non-UK workers...and it's only available to public sector and FSA
> regulated bodies, both of whom have obligations above and beyond the
> duties in question.  Scaling that to cope with all employers in the UK
> might be a bit tricksome.
Can anyone help with explaining how HE (universities, mainly) and FE 
(Technical College level) organisations are supposed to verify identity 
of students? (a) for UK passport holders and those without passports who 
claim to be UK citizens, (b) EEA nationals from outside the UK, (c) 
non-EEA nationals. FE colleges appear to be self-governing rather than 
LA controlled, but at the same time new legislation will dissolve the 
Learning and Skills Council by 2010 and return funding to LAs [1]. 

This is a serious enquiry, because I'm being asked to advise on ICT 
provision for a new FE College campus, and there is concern that the 
institution could end up in the same position as employers, i.e. raided 
by Border Agency and then penalised if someone is found to be out of 
order - and of course HO is not offering any on-line access for 
verification of electronic ID documents, and I don't accept the Call 
Centre method [2]. Obviously new non-EEA entrants to the UK who come 
here for FE or HE courses are going to have new biometric visas, and 
indeed may be given the new eResident cards on entry, but there are 
likely to be a significant number of non-EEA people who are registering 
for courses about now but have been in this country for some time.

Conn Crawford of Sunderland (now a jumped-up city) has been working on 
eID methods for a long time, and is of the opinion that continuity of 
activity in education and local activities provides better evidence of 
identity than producing a recently issued utility bill or two (i.e. you 
can check with people who know them as well as accessing local records) 
- but that only supports the 80/20 rule: 80% of the cohort you hope have 
left a long trail, and its the other 20% you have to worry about (and 
then the 'ID theft' people as well).

Peter

[1] http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/furthereducation

[2] The rumoured 10,000 dedicated terminals are also not the answer.