NO2ID

Renew your passport in May. Make their snooping go away!

http://www.renewforfreedom.org/

They've still got their Union Flag upside down on their webpage!!!

Would one date not be much better compared to a month?

A month is the smallest unit of time in which UK(I)PS seem to be able to report their statistics, if you check their annual reports. If you renew any time between 1/5/06 and 31/5/06 (i.e. if you're using the standard method, try to get get your forms in at the beginning of the month) then you'll hopefully show up as a part of the Renew for Freedom 'spike'.

Early renewals (i.e. of a passport that has MORE than 9 months to run) should be especially difficult for HO to explain away...

Does anyone known the final date you will be eligible to renew your passport without having your details entered on the new ID card database? While May is good if you´re residing in the UK at present - what about those who are not?

October is the earliest they can force you on the NIR. You can still get an unchipped passport through the one day service in some parts of the country.

The simple, and most accurate, answer is that we do not know at this stage. But neither do the Home Office.

As Dave rightly points out, the situation will change in October 2006 such that it will be possible for the Home Office to begin gathering information from some, if not all, passport applicants for later entry onto the National Identity Register.

The Home Office will, of course, flat out deny their intention and maybe even their ability to do this - but technology and the Act explicitly permits it, so we have only the word of the Home Secretary that it is not going to happen. And I find it hard to believe a single word that comes out of Charles Clarke's mouth these days.

We are not going to base NO2ID's recommendation to millions of innocent & law-abiding citizens on the pronouncements of politicians who have flat out contradicted themselves (sometimes within 48 hours) during the course of the Parliamentary debate, who cannot distinguish between 'voluntary' and 'compulsory', and who have already indicated their absolute desperation to get as many people onto the Register before the next general election as possible.

For those temporarily living abroad, I'd recommend a trip back to the UK before October to renew your passport. For those resident in another country, get in touch with the British embassy as you should still have the right to renew at any time through whatever procedures they have. N.B. if you find out that this is NOT the case in a particular country, let us know (send an e-mail to renewforfreedom@no2id.net) and we shall kick up as big a stink as we can.

Phil Booth
National Coordinator, NO2ID

If I send off my current passport in an ordinary May does anyone know how long I could expect it to be before I get the new one back?

You will probably get the new one in a few days, but you should be prepared for it to take up to 6 weeks.

Can anyone post here any experiences as to which passport offices are still offering the old non-chipped passports on their one-day service?

Likewise, can people let us know which offices are now giving out chipped passports?

Most people don't have much of a choice as to which one they use, but it'd be interesting to know.

From a supporter who had to renew early:



The other passport offices are in:

Belfast
Durham
Glasgow
Liverpool
Newport
Peterborough

We understand that you can get a non-chipped passport from Newport if you use the same-day 'Premium' service throughout May, and that this is also the case for other offices that are not issuing their passports from "the main production area".

As Gareth says, it would be interesting and potentially helpful for some people to know which these offices are. So please do post your experiences here.

Is this a reference to section 2(4)?

Yes, Ross - and for those who don't have a copy of the Act to hand, it says:

"(4) An entry for an individual may be made in the Register (whether or not he has applied to be, or is entitled to be, entered in it) if—

(a) information capable of being recorded in an entry for him is otherwise
available to be recorded; and

(b) the Secretary of State considers that the addition of the entry to the
Register would be consistent with the statutory purposes."

I expect that this clause is going to be used a great deal in the period immediately following the 'launch' of the NIR...

We'd better watch out then. Just how much more underhand can this thing get? It hardly shows confidence in the popularity of the idea.

I'm just going the through the form filling for renewing my passport and realised that i have justover 8 years left on my current one - should i renew and get the chipped passport (which i'm not too keen on) or should i keep my existing one and resist in other ways?

Does anyone know if the Glasgow or Durham passport offices are giving out the chipped passports yet (if one applies in person)?

Many thanks for any information-

Steve

Guest, it's not about the chipped passport that we're encouraging people to renew (though it appears that many would prefer not to have one) - its to avoid entry onto the National Identity Register!

If you leave renewal until after the Home Office start gathering data for later entry onto the NIR - possible from this October, though it may take the Home Office a bit longer to get their act together - then your details will be stuck on the Register for as long as it exists.

They will obviously at some point need to call people (back) in to get their biometrics - which you could resist, exposing yourself to £1000 - £2500 fines every time you fail to turn up - but they could effectively gather most of the personal data (and do the background checks) using the enhanced form / interview that they have said they will introduce this October.

And on pure cost alone, I'd say it's worth it:

£51 to renew now, but £93+ for a passport, once ID cards are introduced - so you're 'saving' yourself £42 to buy 10 years' freedom from registration on the NIR by means of your passport. That £42 is (crudely speaking) the equivalent of the 8 years left to run on your current passport.

[Coincidence? Bargain? You decide...]

When I got my present one I took a tip from an Irish friend and sent the application to Belfast. Sent on Monday, back on Wednesday. (This was in the month of June).

Belfast may be less likely to be issuing chipped passports due to remoteness from our "friends" in Westminster - though this is no more than a guess. If I can afford to find £50 and renew in May I'll be sending the app to Belfast anyway.

If this was about biometrics... But it isn't - everyone knows biometrics aren't going to work any time soon. It's about numbering you and having links into your passport/tax/benefits/ANPR/police records.

Apart from the police records, plenty of us could hack up a database to contain that information in an hour or two.

What I expect to happen is that ID cards won't be offered in October. But passport applications (renewers later) will be summoned for an 'interview' and data-raped for an appropriately inflated price. This data will be added to the NIR when that basic infrastructure is built.

How is the increased price going to be applied? Could they get away with charging £93 when you don't get an ID card?

The alternative would be putting people on the NIR for free, which is hardly economic.

Clarke said within days of the Bill becoming an Act that they'd be charging you for the card regardless - i.e. a £30+ penalty for those who opt not to have the card itself.

All meaningless, of course, as you will be compelled to have your details on the Register. The first few dozy people who turn up in 2008/9 thinking, "Oh, its OK - the card's voluntary until 2010" (and there will be some!), are going to be getting a bit of a shock...

Let's hope that their stories make it into the Sun.

Thanks for your reply Phil, but my point was slightly different. Could the Government get away with charging people £93 for a passport renewal before the cards even exist? It would then look merely like a passport price increase.

If people are going to be entered on the NIR early on under section 2(4) using data gathered from October this year, where is the money going to come from to fund the system without the increased fee?

Passport prices seem to go up every year under NuLabour. I'm sure I remember them costing £20-something.

Since the Govt has no other way (bar selling our details) of making up the shortfall on their underestimate of the ID cost, I suspect they'll want to run up a surplus.

The £93 was specifically chosen to sound as little like £100 as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if they charge £93 for a passport + interview + data-rape and £123 including ID card.

The unit cost of issuing a passport will exceed the price they charge by the end of the year anyway - check Hansard for the projected price rises. I think Lynne Jones spoke of it in one of the debates, but there's bound to be a PQ on it somewhere.

But remember their constant, "70% of the cost of doing this will have to be spent of the passports anyway" refrain? I think we can confidently predict a hike to at least £65 within the next 12 months or so. Possibly around the time they start fingerprinting some people, though maybe before.

Bumping it up to £93 in one go before they introduce the cards would, I think, be a little rich even for this lot! Though if their predictions for the unit cost of registration and issuing an ID card start to creep up (and we heard that the projected unit cost crept over £110 sometime last summer - which may explain some of the frantic activity & spending during and after 2005 summer recess), I wouldn't be surprised to see a leap to more than £65 before the introduction of the first cards - in an attempt to 'soften' the blow...

Thanks for that guesstimate. The publicity arising from such a price rise would be valuable.