£1,000 fines by ID card secret police

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The unit, part of the Identity and Passport Service, is expected to send the penalties by post, after snooping through computer records.

Potential pitfalls include forgetting to tell the Government of a change of address or name, failing to notify officials of an error on the National Identity Register and failing to hand in an ID card belonging to a relative who has died. All cash raised will go to the Treasury.

It has also emerged the register will be used as a 'population database' to replace the historic census.

From 2009, anybody applying for a passport must enrol on the register and hand over a raft of details, likely to include financial data and address lists, as well as have fingerprints and a facial scan taken.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "This sinister force will be collecting money from UK citizens to go straight into the Treasury. There is a real danger this will be another stealth tax."

The Home Office insisted the £1,000 fine for not returning a dead relative's ID card was designed to prevent misuse. Officials promise to handle the return of such cards 'sensitively'.

They refused to say how many civil servants would be needed to create the new police force, though scores are likely to monitor the records of all Britons.