Sign in / up

back to article DVLA deals £300m card-style licence contract

A Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency contract to supply card-style driving licences could be used to continue to produce ID cards for foreign nationals. In a tender notice in the Official Journal of the European Union on 9 April 2010, the DVLA says it is looking for a supplier to design services for chipped and non-chipped …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OJEU link

    It'd be good to see the detail of the OJEU sumbission. I'm guessing only IBM or Thales or some similar over-priced, inflexible organisation stands a chance of winning.

    Tried looking it up on http://ted.europa.eu/ to no avail...

    0 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Juicy contracts for the Boys...

      ...are far more of a motivation for ID cards than security... Palms have probably already been crossed with silver as we speak.

      0 0
  2. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    FAIL

    addicted to ID card rollout

    Like a crackhead is addicted to crack.

    Of course with so many in circulation that will give the forgers and crackers a *lot* more examples to work on.

    With almost no actual infrastructure that can *read* the card J. Foreigner can "prove" they are a citizen and with the (slightly more expensive) fully cloned card even if some does check it matches to a legitimate entry for (another) J. Foreigner.

    2 for the price of one.

    Immigration Theater ("We know exactly how many foreign nationals are in this country") + Security Theater ("And we know who they are")

    Funny how the civil service can stop answering *questions* but not *issuing* contracts is it not?

    1 0
    1. Elmer Phud
      Reply Icon

      Threats

      So far the 'threats' to national security have been mainly women and children locked up in conditions that yer average criminal would have gone to the courts about.

      The cards will be needed once these people get out as thier experiences may well have turned them in to potential enemies of the state.

      "See, told you so".

      How will the UK economy work once all the 'illegals' have been rounded up -- or is it just an employee registration scheme for slave labour?

      2 0
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    ...by another name

    It's already the case that Blackberry equipped police forces can already call up the photo that is registered against a drivers license, on the street, or wherever they can get a mobile signal.

    So someone gets stopped, asked whether they have a driving license , their name, and address. PC Plod then calls up the picture, and can confirm by eye whether they have been given correct details WHETHER OR NOT THE PERSON HAS THEIR LICENSE ON THEM!

    If anything is amiss, then said someone gets thrown in police custody pending correct identification.

    I do not know how many police forces have bought into this, but I know that North Wales took part in the pilot about 5 years ago.

    0 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Which means that...

      ...pulling a non-offending driver over for any other reason than simple identification is now simply harassment.

      1 0
  4. ShaggyDoggy

    Blackberry driving licence photo

    Slight snag of course, I still have the pink paper licence and have zero intention of changing to a photo licence, until it runs out in 2026

    3 0
    1. Badbob
      Reply Icon
      Big Brother

      moving house?

      Unless you plan to move house at some point in the next 16 years (not an entirely unreasonable assumption), at which point you will have to have a photocard issued (at your own expense). I'm not even certain that your licence can even be endorsed now without a photocard having to be issued.

      On another note, the photo on my drivers licence was taken 12 years ago, when I was a rather thinner and less bearded 16 year old. I bear little resemblence to said photo, so if I got pulled over by Joe Plod between now and my photo licence expiring at the end of the year, I'm done for. Also, my signature has changed a little (what 16 year old has a fixed signature?).

      0 0
  5. ShaggyDoggy

    Custody

    Also (do behave) they can't "throw you into custody" just for being unable/unwilling to provide ID ... ask any photographer on Chatham High St

    0 0
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      @ShaggyDoggy

      Depends on whether you provide a false identity, or no identity. False identity is almost certainly a reason to detain someone.

      0 0
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    @...by another name.

    Not me they can't: my driving licence is too old to have a picture.

    Anonymous, for obvious reasons; although the satellites can probably see the glint of my tin foil hat from space.

    1 0
  7. lawman
    Stop

    Already in Post Offices

    The machinery is already installed in some Post offices and will be rolled out to the others later this year. A friend is working on the project and he tells me that phase2 involves the Border Agency, so this is the way ID cards are going to be implemented

    0 0
This topic is closed for new posts.