UK: Scots ID card to cover less than in England

LONDON (THE TIMES), June 17, 2005:

Scots will not need identity cards to access devolved services such as the NHS, ministers at Holyrood confirmed yesterday in what they said was an effort to end confusion over the cards north of the border. They will also not need the cards to access the NHS south of the border if they, for example, fall ill or are involved in a car accident in England. However, although the cards in Scotland will not cover the same range of services as in England, they will cost the same.

There were suggestions yesterday from economists at the London School of Economics that they could cost as much as £300.

Tom McCabe, the Scottish Executive Finance Minister, told MSPs at Holyrood yesterday that Scots, in common with other UK citizens, would need the cards to access services reserved to Westminster, such as benefits and pensions. Schools and colleges, hospitals and public transport are, however, devolved to Holyrood and the cards will not be needed in Scotland for these services.

Ministers suffered a rare Holyrood defeat in February when a motion from the Scottish Greens describing Westminster plans for ID cards as an “unacceptable threat to civil liberties” was carried by 52 votes to 47, with 15 Liberal Democrat abstentions.

The decision to restrict the use of ID cards in Scotland to non-devolved areas is essentially a political fudge to overcome the opposition of the Liberal Democrats, Labour’s coalition partners in the Executive.

MSPs also heard John Swinburne, the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party MSP, call for the UK Government to make sure that older people should not have to pay for ID cards to access state pensions.

Annabel Goldie, for the Scottish Tories, asked if Scots would pay less for the cards because they would use them for fewer services as a result of the exclusion of devolved services.

Mr McCabe told her that,since Scots were UK citizens, they would be expected to share “the same burden” and in any case they might require an ID card when acquiring a biometric passport. By Angus Macleod, Scottish Political Editor Copyright 2005 Times Newspapers Ltd