Debate contribution: Digital ID Scheme: Opposition

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 11 November 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

11 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Digital ID Scheme: Opposition

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5349598

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Do not get carried away. I have not spoken yet.

George Orwell was referenced. Members would do well to read 'Homage to Catalonia', because there are a few lessons in that book for some in the House. The digital ID scheme was proposed by the British Government in a supposed attempt to curb illegal immigration, although no human can be classed as "illegal" in any humane society. The proposers of the scheme claim that preventing asylum seeks from accessing work, housing and other public services will deter others from entering the country, as they say, illegally. Not only does that show a lack of understanding of why people migrate but it is completely false. It will not deter people from migrating or seeking asylum, something that is as old as time itself. It will not make some migrants leave; it will simply make their lives more difficult by forcing them into exploitative off-the-books work and unsafe housing, further marginalising them.

The introduction of digital IDs in France and Belgium has not prevented unauthorised migrants from working or living there; rather, it has led to more scapegoating of them.

This is not going to be effective. It is simply an attempt by Labour to look tough on immigration. It is all about the optics and about chasing Reform. The only tangible impact that it will have is on our privacy. The introduction of digital IDs is just another attempt to expand digital infrastructure for a surveillance state. I welcome the new-found scepticism, especially to my right, of big capital and the surveillance state, and I hope that Members will take the logical conclusions from that.

Indeed, what about big pharma? Do you want to talk about big pharma?

Yes, indeed: what about Moy Park? The list goes on, Mr Frew. There are huge privacy issues in relation to the proposed scheme. It is not clear what data would be shared with government bodies or private companies or whether discredited companies such as Fujitsu would be lined up for contracts. I hope that the Member to my right will also oppose that company's getting further contracts. A digital ID system would risk excessive data disclosure and data sharing if there were to be long interactions between individuals and services. Moreover, the One Login system that will manage the IDs is reportedly not secure and is vulnerable to cybersecurity attacks. The ID scheme that was proposed under Blair's Government suffered a major data breach, so how can we expect people to support this ID scheme, knowing that the Government are incapable of protecting our data? Just this year, the Legal Aid Agency suffered a cyberattack that led to a breach of legal aid applicants' data, including their contact details, dates of birth and criminal history. As has been mentioned, the digital ID schemes in Norway, Estonia, Poland and India have all been subject to cyberattacks that have put people at risk. Crucially, excessive monitoring and surveillance would give the state the ability to suppress and censor political dissent with ease, and we know whom it would come after, because it comes after people already. In addition, it is likely that people of colour and those of migrant backgrounds would be subject to a disproportionate level of ID checks, which would create a further hostile environment for racial minorities. The existing eVisa digital ID scheme has been flagged for giving an inaccurate record of people's IDs and how it operates. The British Government claim that they are simply playing catch-up with other countries that have adopted digital IDs, but that is nothing to boast about. Alarmingly, it was reported that authorities in Egypt and Indonesia require religious minorities to renounce their faith in order to obtain an ID card, and the picture being painted in the US is even more bleak. The introduction of digital IDs will make the lives of older people, in addition to ethnic minorities, significantly more difficult if they are unable or unwilling to access digital services. That could seriously impede their ability to participate in public life and access vital public services. The scheme is based entirely on exclusion and discrimination. It is designed to assess who may have access to our public services and who may not. Those in the conservative camp will decry the scheme for its threat to our privacy, but they will fail to recognise that that is exactly where those hateful, exclusionary, anti-immigrant sentiments and ideas lead. We reject both the rhetoric being pushed by the right and the pandering of the British Government to that anti-immigrant narrative.

764 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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