ID card scheme ditches key database

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has decided to drop a key existing part of the National Identity Scheme (NIS) and has decided to build something new instead, according to Computer Weekly.

A government source has told Computer Weekly that the original plan to use an existing Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) database has been dropped. The Customer Information System (CIS) database was too complex and not considered secure enough.

In December 2006, the IPS said it would spread the data required for the NIS across three systems involving national insurance, asylum applications and passports.

But now it appears the IPS believes that it is cheaper and easier to drop the CIS and build their own system.

It is not clear whether the new system will link to the new e-borders system and the separate passport database or hold all the information on a single database.

An IPS spokesman said: "There are no plans for the CIS to be used as the National Identity Register. All of the information relating to people issued with the first identity cards for British citizens will held securely by the Identity and Passport Service on a system provided by IPS contractor Thales.

"In the longer term we will put in place new systems for issuing both fingerprint biometric passports and identity cards. One option is to hold biographic information independently, but on the same technology used to hold biographic information by DWP for its CIS. However, IPS will only hold personal information in a way which is both secure and reliable."