Legal Advice On ID Cards Kept Secret/Guardian--UK

[Gloria]

From the new World Media Watch, up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com


1//The Guardian, UK Monday December 20, 2004

http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,15642,1377360,00.html



LEGAL ADVICE ON ID CARDS KEPT SECRET

David Hencke, Westminster correspondent

The government has banned the release of advice given by Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, to cabinet ministers on whether the controversial bill to introduce ID cards for 55 million British citizens will invade people's privacy or human rights.


The disclosure comes as ministers today face a revolt from Labour MPs and opposition politicians over plans to introduce ID cards. MPs will today be asked to accept a blanket assurance from the former home secretary, David Blunkett, that "the provisions of the identity cards bill are compatible with the European convention of human rights".



The Guardian has learned that parliament's joint committee on human rights, which will scrutinise the bill, has yet to pronounce on safeguards and will not get direct access to the documents.



Lord Goldsmith's advice to ministers is known to contain detailed arguments about whether people's rights would be infringed if they were denied access to public services and closely argued points about the powers of the security services, the police, and other authorities to access details of people's medical history, finances and personal details.



The documents would also include a frank assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the bill. Normally some information is provided about legal discussions in a public memorandum with the bill - but in this case it appears to have been confined to one sentence.



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[gandalf]

1. That's good. Too much transparency hurts democracy

No reason why the parliament's committee responsible for the job should get access to all this unnecessary information...