First ID Cards Are To Be Issued Within Weeks

The first UK identity card for more than 60 years will start to be issued in November, the Government announced today.
Jacqui Smith unveiled the card which is to be issued to people outside the European economic area renewing their permission to stay in the UK as students or on the basis of marriage.
Up to 60,000 cards will be handed out between November and March in the first large scale production of the 4.7bn identity card scheme.
The red and blue card bears the royal crest plus the shamrock, daffodil, thistle and rose as symbols representing the four countries making up the United Kingdom.

It bears the person’s picture, name, date of birth, their status in the UK and whether they have a right to work. On the back the card gives the person’s town and country of birth, gender and whether they have the right to UK state benefits.
The biometric details are the person’s two fingerprints.
Ms Smith, the Home Secretary, said the card, which will cost £30, will replace up to 50 paper documents. “ID cards for foreign nationals will replace old fashioned paper documents; make it easier for employers and sponsors to check entitlement to work and study and for the UK border agency to verify someone’s identity."

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