UK government abandons identity card plan for airside workers

Plans to make biometric identity cards compulsory for all airside workers at UK airports have been scrapped.

"Holding an identity card should be a personal choice for British citizens - just as it is now to obtain a passport," Home Secretary Alan Johnson said on 30 June. "Accordingly I want the introduction of identity cards for all British citizens to be voluntary and I have therefore decided that identity cards issued to airside workers, planned initially at Manchester and London City airports later this year, should also be voluntary."

Manchester and London City airports, which together employ around 20,000 airside staff, are still due to implement the now-voluntary Critical Worker Identity Card (CWIC) scheme later in 2009.

The UK government U-turn from compulsory national ID cards to a voluntary scheme "totally vindicates" the airport lobby's position, said Manchester Airport Managing Director Andrew Cornish.