ID card rollout begins

[Ian Batten]

On 28 Sep 2008, at 08:46, Roland Perry wrote:

> In article <A0F07868-BD03-410C-B3B0-D569FF9C1E4C@batten.eu.org>, Ian  
> Batten <igb@batten.eu.org> writes
>>>
>>> I can see an argument for standardising on a plastic card - do you  
>>> really want airport workers having to carry a passport and open it  
>>> dozens of times a day.
>>
>> Do you not think that airside workers might possibly already carry  
>> photographic ID demonstrating their airside clearance, displayed  
>> permanently, fitted with a variety of security features?
>
> So what is broken about those passes that requires "fixing"  
> according to the Home Office?

Nothing that this will fix.  One of the oft-stated problems is that  
there's no current mechanism to do CRB or other checks on non-UK  
citizens.   It's an area of free movement of labour law that needs to  
be resolved: either you insist on the checks, which discriminates  
against non-local people, or you permit people who can't get the  
checks done to work without them, which discriminates against locals  
with convictions and (if the checks were of any value in the first  
place) the population at large.

Another problem is that airside passes are currently issued by airport  
operators, which means that although your BAA pass gets you around  
LHR, LGW and the others they own, you need a different pass for BHX  
which is owned by Birmingham council, LCY which is I think  
independently owned, etc.  The airlines don't like this, as it makes  
it tricky to re-allocate staff between centres, which makes it  
interesting that they too are opposing the ID card scheme.    
Presumably they believe the costs and problems outweigh the potential  
upsides.  I doubt BA's main board are a bunch of wild-eyed civil  
libertarians on company time.


>
> BALPA are well organised enough to lobby on issues such as this,  
> even if people serving in the airside Starbucks are a bit outside  
> their normal remit.

Slippery slope argument, I suspect.
>
> That you aren't a terrorist (as far as MI5 could tell when you  
> applied for the card, that is).

No one is suggesting that issue of any of these cards is equivalent to  
any particular form of clearance, are they?

And (at risk of putting ideas into government's head) there's no form  
of ID issued to people who do hold clearance merely by virtue of their  
clearance --- and by clearance I don't just mean SC and its friends, I  
mean enhanced CRB.  There are forms of ID you can only obtain by  
virtue of holding a job that mandates clearance --- for example, your  
staff pass at GCHQ --- but those only have currency within that  
organisation.

>  I don't think there are very many people who can legally work in  
> the UK who wouldn't *also* have right to go on holiday in most EAA  
> states if you reauthenticated them at the border).

Don't know.  We have long-term (five year) Japanese assignees: I'll  
ask them what the formalities are when they go to our French or our  
Portuguese offices.

ian