40. Memorandum submitted by
the Scottish Executive
You wrote to the First Minister on 6 January,
asking for information on the reasoning behind the Executive's
decision that it should not be compulsory to use the proposed
UK ID card to access devolved services in Scotland. The First
Minister has asked me to reply as I have lead responsibility in
this area.
To put our decision in context, I think it might
be helpful if I outline at the outset our work in the area of
citizen smartcards.
When the consultation paper on the UK ID card
(or Universal Entitlement Card as it was then) was published in
July 2002, the Executive had already initiated work to develop
by 2006 a voluntary entitlement card to provide the public with
faster and more convenient access to public information and services.
This was in recognition that such cards have a useful role to
play in the modernisation and improvement of local authority services
and that, by working in partnership with all 32 Scottish Councils,
we could avoid a proliferation of expensive, non-standard, smartcards.
The Scottish card will be issued by local authorities—as
principal service providers—and will be used initially to
help individuals gain easier access to services such as concessionary
travel, school registration and catering, leisure facilities and
library membership. The applications of the card could be extended
in the future eg to access health services, although the NHS in
Scotland already has procedures in place to determine someone's
entitlement to free NHS treatment.
During the ID card consultation, Scottish Executive
officials maintained close liaison with their Home Office counterparts
to discuss the potential implications of the UK card for devolved
services. During these discussions, it became clear that:
— the focus of the Home Office proposals
had narrowed from a wide-ranging entitlement card to one focused
primarily on the reserved issues of nationality immigration and
employment rights;
— the authentication requirements of
the ID card would be significantly higher than for the Scottish
card due to the nature of the respective services being administered;
and
— the proposed timetable for implementation
of the ID card was considerably longer than for the Scottish card.
The Home Office expressed the view at that time
that the Executive need not abandon its plans to introduce entitlement
cards as they recognised the potential benefits, both for the
public and for service providers (ODPM were similarly advised
to continue with their National Smartcard project in England).
Scottish Ministers decided that plans to use a Scottish entitlement
card on a voluntary basis for improved access to devolved public
services should proceed, and that there was no need to require
the use of a compulsory UK ID card for that purpose.
Scottish Ministers do however, recognise the
importance of ensuring that smartcard initiatives across the UK—and
Europe—are developed to common standards that support future
interoperability requirements and I can confirm our intention
that our card will conform to recognised standards such as those
of the e-Government Interoperability Framework. My officials will
continue to liaise with Home Office officials, as well as those
of the ODPM and the Office of the e-Envoy to ensure consistency
of technical standards across the UK.
Andy Kerr MSP
Minister for Finance and Public Services
January 2004
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