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Identity cards: an introduction
As part of the National Identity Service, identity cards are being introduced alongside the UK passport. Both will include biometrics of your unique physical features (face and fingerprints), securing them to your biographic details (including your name, address, and date of birth).
How can you get an identity card?
If you lose your identity card, call the ID card advice line (0300 330 0000) to cancel it. To get a replacement card, visit ID Smart
If you're 16 or older and decide you would like an identity card, you will soon be able to apply in much the same way as you would apply for a passport.
As the National Identity Service begins to roll out ID cards later this year, residents in Greater Manchester will be able to enrol. In 2010, residents in northwest England will be able to sign up for a card as well.
People who register their interest online now will be sent updates on the identity card programme as they occur.
From 2012, every British citizen aged 16 or older will be able to apply for an identity card if they choose, but they will not be required to have one.
What will an identity card cost?
When the identity card is launched, it will cost £30.
How your identity card will be used
By locking one individual to one identity using their biometrics, the National Identity Service will make it much harder to create false identities
Verifying identity
Over the next few years, a number of different ways of verifying identity will gradually become available. Accredited organisations will be able to choose the verification method most suitable for the transaction, reflecting the importance of what it is you want to do.
The check may be as simple as looking at the image on the identity card to see if it matches the person presenting it, or may involve verifying the details on the card by phone or online with the Identity and Passport Service.
How checks will be made
At the most basic level, checks could be made:
- by looking at your photo on the card
- using a card reader
- against your details held on the National Identity Register
Initially, organisations will be able to use the card to check the holder's details visually. Over time, they will also be able to use a card reader to check that the details held on the card are authentic and valid.
In addition, with your permission, an accredited organisation could check your details on the card against your details held on the National Identity Register. This will be done through the identity verification service that the Identity and Passport Service will facilitate.
Information from the National Identity Register can only be provided without your consent to a limited number of public bodies - as approved by Parliament - and only when it is in the public interest. A private sector company cannot be given any information without your consent.
Using your card to travel in Europe
British citizens will be able to use their UK identity card to travel to all the countries in the European Economic Area (EEA), and Switzerland.
Find a list of EEA countries using the link below.
What will the identity card look like?
No bigger than a credit card and easy to carry around, the identity card will be convenient and portable
On the face of the card there will be:
- your photograph
- your full name
- your gender
- place and date of birth
- your nationality - applies to British citizens only
- an image of your signature
Follow the link below to see some pictures of what ID cards look like.
Identity cards for critical workers
Later this year (2009) airport employees working at Manchester and London City airports will be able to apply for an identity card.
At about the same time, the Identity and Passport Service will begin to offer identity cards to the general public in a few areas of the country on a voluntary basis.
Identity cards for foreign nationals
In November 2008, the first identity cards for foreign nationals began to be issued to people from outside the European Economic Area who had been granted an extension of their stay in the UK as a student, or on the basis of their marriage to, or partnership with, a UK citizen.
In March 2009 the scheme was extended to several other categories of visa applicants.
All new foreign nationals coming to the UK, and those who are extending their stay in the UK for more than six months, will have a card within three years.
It is estimated that by the end of 2015, about 90 per cent of all foreign nationals in the UK will have been issued with an ID card. As well as being an immigration document for foreign nationals, the card will allow them to prove their right to live in the UK, and to work, study or access public services here.
For more information, and to find out which categories of applicants are currently required to have ID cards, please follow the link below.
More useful links
Provided by the Identity and Passport Service
Additional links
Live or work in Greater Manchester?
Identity cards are now available to British citizens who live or work in the Greater Manchester area
