Public Urged to Renew Passports Early to Escape ID Card Charges

5.14.42pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 26th May 2006

Devon and Cornwall's Liberal Democrat MPs have added their voices to the growing NO2ID campaign which encourages people to renew their passports to avoid having personal details recorded from 2008. The Identity Cards Act was introduced earlier this year and means that everyone who applies for a passport will have to have details such as fingerprints and iris scans taken and stored on the National Identity Database. But by renewing passports now, before the database is set up, details can be kept off it until 2016.

Colin Breed, MP for South East Cornwall, said,

"Introducing Labour's ID card scheme is likely to cost every taxpayer at least £200 and then each one of us will have to personally pay £90 for the privilege of having our privacy infringed. The Government's intrusive scheme is likely to be ineffective and a complete waste of money and I urge my constituents to beat the system, save money and protect their privacy by applying for a new passport this month."

Julia Goldsworthy, MP for Falmouth and Camborne, added:

"The Liberal Democrats have always been united in their opposition to ID Cards. They will be an expensive way of achieving nothing. I for one am not willing to have my personal data stored on a central database and I have therefore renewed my passport early."

· More details on the NO2ID campaign can be found here http://www.no2id.net/