The CBI is calling for more clarity on the purpose behind the Home Secretary's plans for a national ID card scheme.

Responding to the Home Office's official consultation, the CBI says the proposed system is not robust enough to guarantee individuals' identity, and private sector business is worried it will 'carry the can' when there are failures.

While businesses support the scheme in principle, the CBI says the government has not made it clear whether the plan is for a generic identification system or as a targeted response to immigration and crime.

'The CBI believes the government needs to define much more precisely whether the national ID card is really intended to be simply an instrument for government immigration control and crime prevention, or whether (and how) it is to be an identity-authentication service infrastructure that benefits government, businesses and individuals from everyday usage,' says the response.

'The CBI urges the Home Office to consider how the ID cards cheme could be developed to provide an authencticated means of identification for companies conducting business online, as a way to ensure the further development of online trading in business-to-business, business-to-consumer and business-to-government markets.'

There are also concerns that the national identity register planned as part of the scheme will be sufficiently reliable, particularly if the government doesn't limit the amount of information held on each person.

'Businesses fear that increasing the data fields alowed on the registry could render the registry unmanageable, resulting in information becoming out-of-date and unreliable, which could jeopardise the viability of the whole ID card scheme,' says the CBI's response.

Business needs to be sure it will not be held responsible if it uses ID information held on the registry that turns out to be inaccurate, says the CBI.

'The government must spell out how broad its objectives for ID cards are and exactly how the scheme is intended to achieve them. It must set out how it will prevent ID card registration abuse and clarify what information a central ID database would contain and how it would be used,' said CBI deputy director general John Cridland.

'It must also make clear that businesses will not be penalised when they have relied on data that turns out to be wrong,' he said.

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