ID card 'police' to levy £2,000 fines

A team of civil servants will "police" people who refuse to tell the state of any new address, and impose fines of up to £2,000 if they forget.

The ID cards unit is to be responsible for checking that people inform the Government if they move house. The Government has admitted that under the ID cards law people will have to notify the ID cards database and the electoral register of address changes. The disclosure, in parliamentary questions tabled by the Tories, makes a mockery of Home Office claims that the ID cards scheme will mean people would only have to notify the state once of any changes. But the Ministry of Justice admitsthe database will not be linked to the electoral register at all.

David Davis, Conservative home affairs spokesman, has said the plan for fines is "intrusive" and has called for Gordon Brown to scrap ID cards, which Mr Davis described as "a bad idea".

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