12 January 2008
'Tracking research' just published by the Identity & Passport Service [1] shows that, although up to three-quarters of people asked consider the supposed benefits of the ID scheme to be "very important", only just over one quarter consider them to be "very believable".
The research, which the Identity & Passport Service has sat on for up to a year, is approached as a marketing exercise, looking for the "benefits" that will best sell the scheme to the public.
However it acknowledges that:
"Across the board, full buy-in and belief in the scheme’s ability to deliver the proposed benefits is weak." [2]
The research was carried out well before HMRC Child Benefit and other data breach disasters, which are widely believed to have decreased the popularity and credibility of the scheme further.
The documents do pretend to show substantial "Support for the National Identity Scheme" [3]. But the figures are suspect because the Home Office has not published either the exact wording of the questions it used to elicit the responses, nor the other survey data. That would be standard practice for published polls for newspapers and campaigning organisations. Commercial pollsters do not want their research misrepresented [4].
Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator, said:
"After five years of trying to get people to like ID cards, even the Home Office's own research says that only 1 in 4 believe they'll do what they're claimed to. And this is supposed to be positive spin. It's both tragedy and farce.
"Mr Brown - if he's in control at all - should shut down the ID empire-builders before this particular legacy of Blunkett and Blair gets any more embarrassing."
-ENDS-
Notes for editors
1) http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/publications-research.asp – 'National Identity Scheme Tracking Research (February 2007)' and 'National Identity Scheme Tracking Research (October 2007)', published 11/2/08, were prepared by COI Research for IPS Business Development & Marketing.
2) p8, 'National Identity Scheme Tracking Research (October 2007)'.
3) pp3-4, both documents.
4) See British Polling Council rules on statements of disclosure:
http://www.britishpollingcouncil.org/statement.html
5) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state. See http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php for a list of 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing. NO2ID occasionally commissions polls under BPC [4] rules, see:
http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/issues/id-cards/
For more information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact Phil Booth (National Coordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net) on 07974 230 839, Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on
07956 544 308, or Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166.
The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ
enquiries@no2id.net
Tel: 07005 800 651
Press: click here
