Office of Public Sector Information
(1) Where it appears to the Secretary of State that a person on whom a requirement may be imposed under this section may have information in his possession which could be used for verifying—
(a) something recorded in the Register about an individual,
(b) something provided to the Secretary of State or a designated documents authority for the purpose of being recorded in an individual’s entry in the Register, or
(c) something otherwise available to the Secretary of State to be recorded about an individual in the Register,
the Secretary of State may require that person to provide him with the information.
(2) Where it appears to a designated documents authority that a person on whom a requirement may be imposed under this section may have information in his possession which could be used for verifying—
(a) something that is recorded in the Register about an individual who has applied to the authority for the issue or modification of a designated document or of an ID card, or
(b) something that has been provided to that authority for the purpose of being recorded in the entry of such an individual in the Register,
the authority may require that person to provide it with the information.
(3) It shall be the duty of a person who—
(a) is required to provide information under this section, and
(b) has the information in his possession,
to comply with the requirement within whatever period is specified in the requirement.
(4) A requirement may be imposed under this section on any person specified for the purposes of this section in an order made by the Secretary of State.
(5) The persons who may be specified in such an order include—
(a) Ministers of the Crown;
(b) government departments;
(c) a Northern Ireland department;
(d) the National Assembly for Wales;
(e) any other person who carries out functions conferred by or under an enactment that fall to be carried out on behalf of the Crown.
(6) The power of the Secretary of State to make an order specifying a person as a person on whom a requirement may be imposed under this section includes power to provide—
(a) that his duty to provide the information that he is required to provide is owed to the person imposing it; and
(b) that the duty is enforceable in civil proceedings—
(i) for an injunction;
(ii) for specific performance of a statutory duty under section 45 of the Court of Session Act 1988 (c. 36); or
(iii) for any other appropriate remedy or relief.
(7) The Secretary of State may, in such cases (if any) as he thinks fit, make payments to a person providing information in accordance with this section in respect of the provision of the information.
(8) The Secretary of State must not make an order containing (with or without other provision) any provision that he is authorised to make by this section unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.
(1) An individual to whom an ID card has been issued must notify the Secretary of State about—
(a) every prescribed change of circumstances affecting the information recorded about him in the Register; and
(b) every error in that information of which he is aware.
(2) A notification for the purposes of this section must be given—
(a) in the prescribed manner; and
(b) within the prescribed period after the change of circumstances occurs or the individual in question becomes aware of the error.
(3) Where an individual has given a notification for the purposes of this section, the Secretary of State may require him to do such one or more of the things falling within subsection (4) as the Secretary of State thinks fit for the purpose of—
(a) verifying the information that may be entered in the Register about that individual in consequence of the notified change or for the purpose of correcting the error; or
(b) otherwise ensuring that there is a complete, up-to-date and accurate entry about that individual in the Register.
(4) The things that an individual may be required to do under subsection (3) are—
(a) to attend at an agreed place and time or (in the absence of agreement) at a specified place and time;
(b) to allow his fingerprints, and other biometric information about himself, to be taken and recorded;
(c) to allow himself to be photographed;
(d) otherwise to provide such information as may be required by the Secretary of State.
(5) Regulations under this section must not require an individual to provide information to another person unless it is information required by the Secretary of State for the statutory purposes.
(6) The power of the Secretary of State to make regulations containing (with or without other provision) any provision that he is authorised to make by this section is exercisable, on the first occasion on which regulations are made under this section, only if a draft of the regulations has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.
(7) An individual who contravenes a requirement imposed on him by or under this section shall be liable to a civil penalty not exceeding £1,000.
(1) Regulations may require an individual to whom an ID card has been issued to notify the Secretary of State, and such other persons as may be prescribed, if he knows or has reason to suspect that the card has been—10
(a) lost;
(b) stolen;
(c) damaged;
(d) tampered with; or
(e) destroyed.
(2) The Secretary of State may cancel an ID card if it appears to him—
(a) that the card was issued in reliance on inaccurate or incomplete information;
(b) that the card has been lost, stolen, damaged, tampered with or destroyed;
(c) that there has been a modification of information recorded in the entry in the Register of the holder of the card;
(d) that another change of circumstances requires a modification of information recorded in or on the card; or
(e) that it is an ID card of a description of cards that the Secretary of State has decided should be re-issued.
(3) A person who is knowingly in possession of an ID card without either—
(a) the lawful authority of the individual to whom it was issued, or
(b) the permission of the Secretary of State,
must surrender the card as soon as it is practicable to do so.
(4) Where it appears to the Secretary of State that a person is in possession of—
(a) an ID card issued to another,
(b) an ID card that has expired or been cancelled or is otherwise invalid,
(c) an ID card that has not yet been cancelled but is of a description of cards that the Secretary of State has decided should be re-issued, or
(d) an ID card that is in that person’s possession in consequence of a contravention of a relevant requirement,
the Secretary of State may require that person to surrender the card within such period as he may specify.
(5) Where an ID card has to be surrendered under subsection (3) or (4), it must be surrendered—
(a) to the Secretary of State; or
(b) in the case of a card issued by a designated documents authority, either to the Secretary of State or to that authority.
(6) A person who contravenes a requirement imposed by or under—
(a) any regulations under subsection (1), or
(b) subsection (3) or (4),
shall be liable to a civil penalty not exceeding £1,000.
(7) In this section—
(a) references to a card having been damaged include references to anything in or on it being, or having become, unreadable or otherwise unusable; and
(b) references to a card having been tampered with include references to information in or on it having been modified for an unlawful purpose, or copied or otherwise extracted for such a purpose.
(8) In this section “relevant requirement” means a requirement to surrender or otherwise to deliver an ID card to the Secretary of State, or to another, which is imposed—
(a) by virtue of any order under section 39, or
(b) by any enactment relating to the surrender of any other document.
(1) The Secretary of State may provide a person with information recorded in an individual’s entry in the Register if—
(a) an application for the provision of the information to that person is made by or with the authority of that individual; or
(b) that individual otherwise consents to the provision of that information to that person.
(2) The only information about an individual that may be provided to a person under this section is—
(a) information about the individual falling within paragraph 1, 3 or 4 of Schedule 1 (name, date and place of birth, gender and addresses, residential status, identifying numbers and validity of identifying documents);
(b) the information contained in any photograph of the individual recorded in the Register;
(c) the information about the individual’s signature that is so recorded;
(d) information about whether an ID card issued to the individual is in force and, if not, why not;
(e) information which, by virtue of section 3(3), is recorded in the Register at the individual’s request;
(f) the questions recorded by virtue of paragraph 8 of Schedule 1 for use for the purposes of applications for information about the individual;
(g) information confined to the grant or refusal of confirmation that information falling within subsection (3) that has been submitted to the Secretary of State coincides with information so falling that is recorded in the individual’s entry in the Register; and
(h) information confined to the grant or refusal of confirmation that the individual’s entry in the Register does not contain information of a particular description falling within that subsection.
(3) The information falling within this subsection is—
(a) information comprised in a fingerprint;
(b) other biometric information;
(c) the number to be used for the purposes of applications for information about the individual in question;
(d) the password or other code to be so used; and
(e) the answers to the questions to be so used.
(4) The Secretary of State may—
(a) by order modify subsections (2) and (3); and
(b) by regulations impose restrictions in addition to those contained in this section on the information that may be provided to a person under this section.
(5) The power of the Secretary of State by order to modify subsections (2) and (3) does not include—
(a) power to omit subsection (2); or
(b) power to add information falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 to either of those subsections.
(6) The Secretary of State may also by regulations make provision as to—
(a) how an authority or consent for the purposes of subsection (1) is to be given;
(b) the persons by whom, and the circumstances in which, an application for those purposes may be made; and
(c) how such an application is to be made.
(7) The Secretary of State may by regulations make it a condition of the provision of information under this section—
(a) that the person to whom it is provided has registered prescribed particulars about himself with the Secretary of State;
(b) that that person and the applicant for the information (where different) are for the time being approved by the Secretary of State in the prescribed manner; and
(c) that apparatus used for the purposes of the application, and apparatus that it is proposed to use for the receipt and storage of the information, is for the time being approved in the prescribed manner by the person specified in or determined under the regulations.
(8) The power of the Secretary of State under this section to provide information about an individual to another person is exercisable only where the provision of the information is subject to the satisfaction in relation to that other person of conditions imposed under subsection (7)(a) and (b).
(9) The Secretary of State must not make an order containing (with or without other provision) any provision that he is authorised to make by subsection (4)(a) unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.
(10) The restrictions imposed by or under this section on the information that may be provided to a person do not affect any right apart from this Act for an individual to be provided with information about the contents of his entry in the Register.
(1) Regulations may make provision allowing or requiring a person who provides a public service to make it a condition of providing the service to an individual that the individual produces—
(a) an ID card;
(b) other evidence of registrable facts about himself; or
(c) both.
(2) Regulations under this section may not allow or require the imposition of a condition on—
(a) the entitlement of an individual to receive a payment under or in accordance with any enactment, or
(b) the provision of any public service that has to be provided free of charge,
except in cases where the individual is of a description of individuals who are subject to compulsory registration.
(3) Nothing in this section authorises the making of regulations the effect of which would be to require an individual—
(a) to carry an ID card with him at all times; or
(b) to produce such a card otherwise than for purposes connected with an application by him for the provision of a public service, or with the provision of a public service for which he has applied.
(1) The power to make regulations under section 13 shall be exercisable—
(a) in relation to the provision of Welsh public services, by the National Assembly for Wales;
(b) in relation to the provision of Northern Ireland public services, by a Northern Ireland department designated for the purpose by order made by the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister; and
(c) so far as not exercisable by any other person under paragraph (a) or (b), by the Secretary of State.
(2) In subsection (1)—
(a) the reference to the provision of Welsh public services is a reference to the provision of public services in Wales, so far as their provision is a matter in relation to which the National Assembly for Wales has functions; and
(b) the reference to the provision of Northern Ireland public services is a reference to the provision of public services in Northern Ireland, so far as their provision is a transferred matter (within the meaning of section 4(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 (c. 47)).
(3) Regulations containing (with or without other provision) any provision the making of which is authorised by section 13 must not be made by the Secretary of State or a Northern Ireland department unless a draft of the regulations—
(a) in the case of regulations made by the Secretary of State, has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House; and
(b) in the case of regulations made by a Northern Ireland department, has been laid before and approved by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
(4) Before—
(a) draft regulations under section 13 are laid before either House of Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly, or
(b) regulations under that section are made by the National Assembly for Wales,
the person proposing to make the regulations must take such steps as that person thinks fit for securing that members of the public likely to be affected by the regulations are informed about the matters mentioned in subsection (5), and for consulting them about the proposal.
(5) Those matters are—
(a) the reasons for the making of the regulations; and
(b) why reliance is not being placed on powers conferred otherwise than by this Act.
(6) Where—
(a) a power to impose conditions for the provision of a public service is exercisable under an enactment not contained in this Act, and
(b) that power is exercisable only after consultation with such persons as may be specified or described in that enactment,
the power under section 13 to impose a condition for the provision of that service or to make provision in relation to such a condition is to be exercisable only after consultation with the persons so specified or described.
(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision authorising a person providing a public service in respect of which—
(a) a condition is imposed under section 13, or
(b) a condition for the production of an ID card, or of evidence of registrable facts, or both, is imposed by or under any other enactment,
to be provided with information recorded in the Register that he requires for the purpose of ascertaining or verifying registrable facts about an individual who has applied for the provision of the service.
(2) Regulations under this section may not authorise the provision to any person of information falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1.
(3) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision as to—
(a) the manner in which applications for the provision of information under this section must be made;
(b) the persons by whom, and the circumstances in which, such an application may be made; and
(c) the information that may be provided in response to such an application and the manner in which it may be provided.
(4) The Secretary of State may by regulations make it a condition of the provision of information under this section—
(a) that the person to whom it is provided has registered prescribed particulars about himself with the Secretary of State;
(b) that that person and the applicant for the information (where different) are for the time being approved by the Secretary of State in the prescribed manner; and
(c) that apparatus used for the purposes of the application, and apparatus that it is proposed to use for the receipt and storage of the information, is for the time being approved in the prescribed manner by the person specified in or determined under the regulations.
(5) The power of the Secretary of State under this section to provide information about an individual to another person is exercisable only where the provision of the information is subject to the satisfaction in relation to that other person of conditions imposed under subsection (4)(a) and (b).
(6) The Secretary of State must not make regulations containing (with or without other provision) any provision that he is authorised to make by this section unless a draft of the regulations has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.
(7) Before draft regulations under this section are laid before either House of Parliament, the Secretary of State must take such steps as he thinks fit for securing that—
(a) members of the public in the United Kingdom are informed about the reasons for the proposal to make the regulations; and
(b) for consulting them about it.
(8) In this section “enactment” includes an enactment comprised in an Act of the Scottish Parliament.
(1) It shall be unlawful to make it a condition of doing anything in relation to an individual that the individual—
(a) makes an application under section 12(1) for the provision to him of information recorded in his entry in the Register;
(b) exercises the right conferred by section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 (c. 29) to obtain information recorded in his entry in the Register; or
(c) provides a person with information about what is recorded in his entry in the Register.
(2) It shall also be unlawful in cases not falling within subsection (3) for any person—
(a) to make it a condition of doing anything in relation to an individual that the individual makes an application, or gives an authority or consent, for the purposes of section 12(1) in order to secure the provision to another person of information recorded in the individual’s entry in the Register;
(b) to make it a condition of doing anything in relation to an individual that the individual establishes his identity by the production of an ID card; or
(c) otherwise to impose a requirement on an individual to produce such a card.
(3) Each of the following is a case in which a condition or requirement referred to in subsection (2) may be imposed in relation to or on an individual—
(a) where the condition or requirement is imposed in accordance with regulations under section 13, or in accordance with provision made by or under any other enactment;
(b) where provision is made allowing the individual to satisfy the condition or other requirement using reasonable alternative methods of establishing his identity;
(c) where the individual is of a description of individuals who are subject to compulsory registration.
(4) The obligation of a person by virtue of this section not to impose a condition or requirement in relation to or on an individual is a duty owed to that individual and is enforceable by him in civil proceedings—
(a) for an injunction or interdict; or
(b) for any other appropriate remedy or relief.
(5) In this section “enactment” includes an enactment comprised in an Act of the Scottish Parliament.
(1) The Secretary of State may, without the individual’s consent, provide a person with information recorded in an individual’s entry in the Register if—
(a) the provision of the information is authorised by this section; and
(b) there is compliance with any requirements imposed by or under section 21 in relation to the provision of the information.
(2) The provision of information is authorised by this section where it is—
(a) the provision of information to the Director-General of the Security Service for purposes connected with the carrying out of any of that Service’s functions;
(b) the provision of information to the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service for purposes connected with the carrying out of any of that Service’s functions;
(c) the provision of information to the Director of the Government Communications Headquarters for purposes connected with the carrying out of any of the functions of GCHQ; or
(d) the provision of information to the Director General of the Serious Organised Crime Agency for purposes connected with the carrying out of any of that Agency’s functions.
(3) The provision of information not falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 is authorised by this section where the information is provided to a chief officer of police—
(a) in the interests of national security;
(b) for purposes connected with the prevention or detection of crime; or
(c) for other purposes specified by order made by the Secretary of State.
(4) The provision of information not falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 is authorised by this section where the information is provided to the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs—
(a) in the interests of national security;
(b) for purposes connected with the prevention or detection of crime;
(c) for purposes connected with the prevention, detection or investigation of conduct in respect of which the Commissioners have power to impose penalties, or with the imposition of such penalties;
(d) for the purpose of facilitating the checking of information provided to the Commissioners in connection with anything under their care and management, or with any other matter in relation to which the Commissioners have duties under any enactment;
(e) for purposes connected with any of the functions of the Commissioners in relation to national insurance contributions or national insurance numbers; or
(f) for other purposes specified by order made by the Secretary of State.
(5) The provision of information not falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 is authorised by this section where the information is provided—
(a) to a prescribed government department, or
(b) to a prescribed Northern Ireland department,
for purposes connected with the carrying out of any prescribed functions of that department or of a Minister in charge of it.
(6) The provision of information to a designated documents authority is authorised by this section where the information is provided for purposes connected with the exercise or performance by the authority of—
(a) any of its powers or duties by virtue of this Act; or
(b) any of its other powers or duties in relation to the issue or modification of designated documents.
(7) The powers of the Secretary of State by virtue of this section to make an order or regulations authorising the provision of information to a person are exercisable for the purposes only of authorising the provision of information in circumstances in which its provision to the person in question is necessary in the public interest.
(8) The Secretary of State must not make an order or regulations containing (with or without other provision) any provision that he is authorised to make under this section unless a draft of the order or regulations has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.
(9) In this section—
“chief officer of police” means—
the chief officer of police of a police force maintained for a police area in England and Wales;
the chief constable of a police force maintained under the Police (Scotland) Act 1967 (c. 77);
the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland;
the Chief Constable of the Ministry of Defence Police;
the Chief Constable of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary;
the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police;
the chief officer of the States of Jersey Police Force;
the chief officer of the salaried police force of the Island of Guernsey; or
the Chief Constable of the Isle of Man Constabulary;
“GCHQ” has the same meaning as in the Intelligence Services Act 1994 (c. 13).
(10) Nothing in this section is to be construed as restricting any power to disclose information that exists apart from this section.
(1) The Secretary of State may, without the individual’s consent, provide a person with information recorded in an individual’s entry in the Register if—
(a) the provision of the information is authorised by this section; and
(b) there is compliance with any requirements imposed by or under section 21 in relation to the provision of the information.
(2) The provision to a person of information not falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 is authorised by this section (so far as it is not otherwise authorised by section 17) if the information is provided for any of the purposes specified in section 17(2)(a) to (d) of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (c. 24) (criminal proceedings and investigations).
(3) Section 18 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 (restriction on disclosure of information for overseas purposes) shall have effect in relation to the provision to a person of information by virtue of subsection (2) as it applies in relation to a disclosure of information in exercise of a power to which section 17 of that Act applies.
(4) The provision of information falling within paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 is authorised by this section if it is provided—
(a) to a person to whom information may be provided by virtue of any of subsections (3) to (5) of section 17 or is made as mentioned in subsection (2) of this section; and
(b) for purposes connected with the prevention or detection of serious crime.
Identity Cards Act 2006