Whitehall is watching: ID cards could let Government snoop on our lives, warn MPs

Identity cards could be used by the Government to create a 'surveillance society' spying on British citizens, a damning Commons report warned yesterday.

The all-party home affairs select committee called for safeguards to ensure the state did not use the compulsory cards to delve into private lives.

Ministers were also urged to make sure fraudsters, terrorists or blackmailers could not 'disastrously' steal details belonging to 50million citizens who will be on the £20billion database.

And the MPs called on the Government to limit the data collected to avoid becoming a spy state such as the former East Germany.

The report said: 'We are concerned... about the potential for "function creep" in terms of the surveillance potential of the National Identity Scheme.

'Any ambiguity about the objectives of the scheme puts in jeopardy the public's trust in the scheme itself and in the Government's ability to run it.'

The report comes at time of rising concern about the country 'sleepwalking' into an Orwellian future.

In recent years, Britain has compiled the biggest DNA database in the world, has put up 4.2million CCTV cameras and now has more than 800 public bodies able to use so-called anti-terror laws to snoop on phone and email records.

Under Government plans, ID cards  -  holding details including names, dates of birth and addresses  -  will be held by everyone over 16 from 2017.

ID cards containing biometric passports, with details of fingerprints and iris patterns, will be available from 2011.

MPs also called for measures to prevent security breaches.

Referring-to the disappearance of two HM Revenue and Customs computer discs containing the details of 25million Child Benefit claimants last year, the report said: 'Assurances that the Government has learned lessons, though welcome, are not sufficient to reassure us or, we suspect, the public.'

It also said less data should be held for shorter periods. 'What we are calling for is an overall principle of least data, for least time,' said committee chairman Keith Vaz.

But Home Secretary Jacqui Smith backed CCTV and the DNA database.

She told BBC 1's Andrew Marr Show that her constituents had supported CCTV to stop anti-social behaviour and added that 'tens of thousands of crimes' had been solved using the DNA database.

The Ministry of Justice said it had to balance protecting the public with protecting a right to privacy.