In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, the Citizen Information Project (CIP) was a plan by the

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible for ...

to build a national population register. On 18 April 2006 it was announced that instead of continuing as a separate project, it would be integrated into the

National Identity Register The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created national identity cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, linked to a ...

, the database behind the proposed national identity cards. It has been estimated that this might add £200 million to the cost of the identity cards. The National Identity Register was destroyed as the

Identity Cards Act 2006 The Identity Cards Act 2006 (c. 15) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was repealed in 2011. It created national identity cards, a personal identification document and European Economic Area travel document, linked to a ...

was repealed in 2011.

Scope and purpose

The register was to have been used as a single reference point for government contact, for the exchange of personal contact data, and for the collection of statistics, so reducing duplication in government departments and agencies. Government databases would have been linked together using

National Insurance National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their famil ...

or other personal numbers. In late 2003 the project moved into a definition phase. It was hoped that the CIP would be able to use data from the proposed

. A report on preliminary testing was due in April 2005, and it had been expected that it would have been implemented before the end of 2007 if approval had been given by Government. Initial estimates in 2004 suggested that the costs might have been £1.2 - £2.4 billion (240 million annually for a period of 5 to 10 years).

References

External links

Citizen Information Project

Testing of technology involved in a UK population register is soon to begin

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Privacy International
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