Rafael Behr writes on The Observer web site, giving the Coalition government an end-of-term report on civil liberties:

Few items can have been easier to agree in coalition talks than the proposal to scrap ID cards. Both the Lib Dems and the Tories hated them, there was no public enthusiasm, and ditching them saved money. Win-win. But for the Lib Dems, that is just the start. Nick Clegg wants a bonfire of state intrusions into citizens’ private lives.

He concludes:

POPULARITY FACTOR: 5/10 There’s always the possibility of a terror attack or horrible crime that would have been prevented if Clegg had not scrapped some database or other.

SPLIT FACTOR: 1/10 One of few policy areas where David Davis agrees with Simon Hughes.

RADICAL FACTOR: 6/10 Subtle but significant change in the power balance between government and citizen.

According to the ZDnet web site:

The Cabinet Office has disclosed the dates that its civil liberty bills should pass Parliament, including the Identity Documents Bill.

A government document titled Political reform, draft structural reform plan says that the Identity and Documents Bill, which also includes scrapping the National Identity Register and the halting of fingerprints on passports, should complete its passage through Parliament by December 2010.

The Cabinet Office document is linked here.

Andrew Donoghue writes in eWeek Europe about the Government’s Smart Meter initiative, which would see every home electronically submit electricity meter readings to a central database every 30 minutes:

Current estimates of the smart meter elements of the project are around £3.6 billion over the next 20 years, which seem hopelessly out of whack. The ID Card project – which stalled halfway through – spiralled to more than £5 billion. And that was just about giving everyone a small bit of plastic with some database tech to support. Smart meters and the associated grid overhaul will be in another league altogether in terms of scale. Potentially one or two wireless devices installed in every home in the UK, capable of talking not only to the utilities smart grid infrastructure but to the so-called “In-Home Display” (which lets consumers see what they are consuming) as well as electrical devices in the home. Don’t let anyone tell you this is not a massive undertaking.

There is obviously the issue of how much consumers can expect to save. It goes without saying that utilities fully expect to make “efficiencies” by being able to sack meter-readers, for example, and do everything remotely. But will more granular information really translate into smaller bills for energy consumers? In the US, where the rollout is accelerating due to finite availability of the government funding to support it, there have been reports that smart meter users are actually finding their bills going up. Consumers might have more accurate information on what they are using – but so do the utilities, and some are putting this information to good effect.

And the comparisons with ID Cards don’t stop at cost projections. Security and privacy are also a fundamental issue. The government is taking pains to make sure there is a public consultation on the process, to make sure that it doesn’t feel like this is simply all about streaming information from utilities to consumers homes. But the aggressive timetable for the project has pushed some experts – commentating on similarly tight deadlines in the US – to postulate that security and privacy will take a back-seat to rolling-out the devices as fast as possible. Get them out there and worry about the other stuff later.

Rebecca Smith writes in the Daily Telegraph:

A senior GP is urging other doctors to boycott the online medical records system by refusing to upload their patients’ details, it has emerged.

Dr Paul Cundy, former chairman of the British Medical Association’s IT committee has urged GPs across the country to block the uploading of patient records at their surgeries.

He fears the system is not safe after it was found that one in ten of the records uploaded so far in Birmingham contained errors about patients that could lead to harm, including mistakes about their allergies and medications.

The government is reviewing the Summary Care Record, which will see every patient in England with an electronic medical record that can be accessed by doctors anywhere in the country, unless they specifically opt out.

However in the meantime records are still being uploaded.

Dr Cundy believes the system should be opt-in.

He said he will put a block on his patients’ records at his surgery in Wimbledon, south London, so they cannot be uploaded without the patient’s specific consent and he urged others to do the same.

According to the Daily Mail:

Voters should be required to present proof of identity when they go to the polls as part of a massive overhaul of Britain’s voting system, the official elections watchdog said today.

The Electoral Commission has called on ministers to take ‘immediate action’ to prevent a repeat of the chaos in the General Election which left thousands unable to cast their ballots.

It also warned that the coalition Government’s ambitious programme of democratic reforms was likely to add to the pressure on the machinery of electoral administration.

It said that ministers needed to look at ways of strengthening the system in order to maintain public confidence and avoid a repeat of the chaos in May.

Among the measures it recommended was a review of the case for requiring proof of identity for voters casting their vote at polling stations.

Currently only voters in Northern Ireland are required to present some form of photographic identification when they go to vote.

The commission said that it received complaints from electors who were unable to vote because someone else was already issued with a ballot paper in their name.

Commission chairwoman Jenny Watson said: ‘We are lucky to have inherited a trust-based system from previous generations. But this cannot endure forever.

‘The basic building blocks of electoral administration need long-term support and reform in order to ensure that voters can be sure that their vote counts.’

Forms of acceptable ID would include a passport or current driving licence.