Alan Johnston: Government Advisors are There to Back Government Policy and Not to Tell the Truth

Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, has ordered a swift review of the body at the centre of a row over the Government's drugs policy.

News that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) will have its functions scrutinised emerged just three days after Mr Johnson sacked the panel's chairman for comments critical of the Government's policy on cannabis.

Mr Johnson told MPs: “I asked Prof Nutt to resign as my principal drugs adviser not because of the work of the council but because of his failure to recognise that as chair of ACMD his role is to advise rather than criticise Government policy on drugs".

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Passport Details to be Kept on ID Register Despite Card U-turn

British citizens who apply for or renew their passport will be automatically registered on the national identity card database under regulations to be approved by MPs in the next few weeks.

The decision to press ahead with the main elements of the national identity card scheme follows a review by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, of the £4.9bn project. Although Johnson said the cards would not be compulsory, critics say the passport measures amount to an attempt to introduce the system by the backdoor.

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