UK Policy Consultation & Briefing

ID Card Discrimination Campaign

Parliamentary Briefing
House of Commons Second Reading of the Identity Card Bill

Why JCWI is concerned about identity cards:

The JCWI (Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants) is an independent national organisation which has been providing legal representation to individuals and families affected by immigration, nationality and refugee law and policy since 1967.

JCWI actively lobbies and campaigns for changes in law and practice and its mission is to eliminate discrimination in this sphere. JCWI works to influence debates on immigration and asylum issues in both the UK and at European level.

Migration-related legislation such as the identity card bill is therefore of central importance to us. Our membership also consists of many black and ethnic community organisations that represent people who may be affected by the proposed measure.

Reasons for our concern:

Given the findings of research conducted in Europe* , JCWI is concerned that the identity card is a measure with the potential for discrimination against minority groups. While we are pleased that the government has published the statutory Race Equality Impact Assessment of the bill in advance of the Second Reading, in line with our previous call to action, we remain concerned that this REIA does not comprise an assessment adequate to the task of scrutinising a Bill, which if passed into law, will represent a serious step change in the relationship between the UK government and its citizens.

(* Adrian Beck and Kate Broadhurst: Policing the community: the impact of national identity cards in the European Union, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol.24, No. 3, 413-431, July 1998)

The evidence

When University of Leicester researchers Kate Broadhurst and Adrian Beck investigated other EU countries' experiences of ID card systems, they concluded that "identity checks by police officers and other official agencies impact(s) disproportionately on ethnic minority groups". It is pertinent to the UK situation that in two of the three countries they studied, France and the Netherlands, carrying an ID card is voluntary.

Beck and Broadhurst found that in Germany officers did demand ID from ethnic minority persons disproportionately. None of those the officers stopped and checked turned out to be illegal migrants yet all were inconvenienced, in public, while the police carried out the check.

In the Netherlands the two researchers accompanied officers from the Aliens Department checking factories for illegal migrant workers. One investigation resulted in a third of the work force, who were all ethnic minorities, having to leave their posts in front of co-workers and escort the officers to a police station. None of them were found to be illegal.

In France senior officers admitted to Beck and Broadhurst that laws requiring them to carry out identity checks for illegal immigrants had created more tension between themselves and ethnic minorities.

According to Amnesty International's 2004 report on France* , annual complaints about police ill-treatment in Paris doubled between 1997 and 2002. Many incidents in the Seine-Saint-Denis Department arise out of identity checks and are race-related. Amnesty's 2003 report on France claims cases of police brutality frequently follow disputes arising from police identity checks.

(*See "France" in Amnesty International Reports 2003 and 2004, or http://web.amnesty.org/report 2004/fra-summary-eng and http://web.amnesty.org/report 2003/fra-summary-eng)

The Race Equality Impact Assessment of the identity card bill:

JCWI is pleased that the Government has published the REIA in advance of this Second Reading and that this brings to public scrutiny the fears which substantial numbers of those minorities polled, particularly black persons, have expressed in relation to identity cards.

However we do not think it appropriate for the REIA to advance an argument that because the ID card will help tackle fears of illegal migration, it will promote good community relations. As the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 and the CRE's guidance make clear, an REIA is not about showing how a majority will be placated, but demonstrating objectively that minorities will not suffer detrimental effects from a particular policy measure. This REIA fails to do so.

We note that in spite of the substantial proportion of minorities who have expressed concerns about identity checks that the REIA fails to consider the Beck and Broadhurst research, whether or not identity checks will impact disproportionately on minority groups, or to show how the risk of discrimination will be tackled. It is not sufficient for the Government to argue that because the UK police will not be able to demand production of identity cards that such research findings do not apply here: it is completely voluntary to carry a card in France but discrimination still occurs. And while the UK police may not be able to demand production of the ID card, the Bill makes it clear that public services officials will be able, and expected, to do so.

We are pleased that the Government has promised a more substantial Race Equality Impact Assessment before further legislation making the identity card compulsory for the general UK population is brought to the Commons. However, the identity card is likely to become compulsory for foreign nationals before then . Hence, the risk of discrimination against ethnic minorities will come into play at the same time as foreign nationals have to apply for the ID card and it is therefore relevant to make a full REIA and bring it to public scrutiny now.

JCWI urges MPs

• To debate the merits of the existing REIA at Second Reading
• To call on the Home Office to bring a full REIA before Parliament for debate and scrutiny before this enabling Bill becomes law
• To demand that the full REIA takes into account the research of Beck and Broadhurst and other relevant research
• To demand that the REIA demonstrates comprehensively that the ID card will not have detrimental effects on minority groups which some of them have plainly told the Home Office they fear.

For further information please contact Rhian Beynon, Communications Officer, JCWI, 020 7553 7464