Digital ID and civil liberties

That this House unequivocally condemns the Government’s proposed implementation of a national digital ID system; notes that such a system poses a serious data security risk, given the scale, sensitivity and centralisation of required personal information; further notes that digital ID represents the potential for a significant infringement on civil liberties, enabling unprecedented levels of state monitoring, tracking and oversight of everyday activities; expresses concern that the Government has failed to explore alternative and less intrusive measures to tackle illegal working, including the simplification of existing right-to-work requirements for businesses, without compromising individual freedoms; observes with alarm that, when taken together with the cancellation of local elections, the scrapping of trial by jury in certain circumstances, and the expansion of facial recognition technologies in public spaces, the introduction of digital ID marks a further step towards an authoritarian style of governance that is incompatible with British democratic traditions; and therefore urges the Government to halt its plans for digital ID, commit to full transparency regarding its intentions, and prioritise the protection of civil liberties and privacy in all future legislative proposals.