The government plans to begin rolling out the National Identity Programme this week, after Cabinet approved the necessary regulations to implement the ID card initiative.
The first to receive the new national ID cards will be government members involved in the project, allowing the system to be tested and fine tuned before proceeding further, according to a press release from the Ministry of Social Development and Innovation.
Following this phase, the next people to get their ID cards will be civil servants, followed by the general public.
The cards, which will be available free of charge and on a voluntary basis, provide both physical and digital proof of a person’s identity, and include the cardholder’s photograph, name, date of birth, sex, immigration status and unique card ID number, with additional optional information available on a scannable QR code.
Deputy Premier Kenneth Bryan, in the press release, called the launch of the National Identity Programme a crucial step forward in modernising public services and providing residents with a secure and convenient form of identification.
“This initiative is about more than just a card – it represents progress, innovation, and a commitment to enhancing the way Caymanians and residents interact with government services,” he said.
The Cayman Islands Identification Card Regulations were gazetted on 19 Feb.
Lawmakers passed the Identification Register Bill and the National Identification Card Bill in December 2022, creating the legislative framework for Cayman’s first national ID system.
There had been indications last year that the first to receive the new ID cards would be elderly people and youngsters, as part of a pilot programme, but that does not appear to have occurred.
In response to queries from the Compass about the delays in rolling out the first phase of the programme, the ministry’s deputy chief officer, Charles Brown, said, “The Ministry required additional time to ensure the regulations were thoroughly drafted and tailored for the project’s initial phases.”
Bryan, in Wednesday’s press release, stated, “As we embark on this journey, our focus remains on ensuring that the system is seamless, secure, and built with the needs of the people in mind. There is still work to be done, but today, I want to recognise and thank the dedicated teams across government who have worked tirelessly to bring us to this point.”
Ministry of Social Development and Innovation Chief Officer Tamara Ebanks, in the release, thanked the teams working on the initiative.
“The commencement of the National Identity Programme is the result of tireless efforts, strategic planning, and collaboration across government,” she said.
The National Identity Programme will be available to all Cayman Islands residents, the ministry noted. For those who opt in, the card will provide a range of benefits, including enhanced security, convenience, and access to future digital features, it said.
Applications for ID cards are not yet being accepted, with government to announce that phase of the programme at a later date.
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Back in 2009 the UK considered issuing national ID cards and abandoned the project. Canada’s privacy commissioners at the federal and provincial levels came down hard against it.
Cards to identify your nationality without giving you permission to do anything, like drive, or go anywhere like a passport were first issued in Europe by the National Socialist party. Germany did not abandon the project although the war death almost all its males and the destruction of it major cities did eventually cool its enthusiasm for the instigators.
The problem with them, even if only optional, is that they become the default form of identification and failure to produce gives rise to a rebuttable presumption of either non-entitlement or reason to decline to self identify.
We live in an increasingly authoritarian world, in fact we seem to crave its direction. Sadly the people who end in charge in that world are very rarely particularly burdened by democratic tendencies.
Co-vid unleashed this authoritarian override. We allowed governments to make rules allowing random bureaucrats and police to demand ID based on nothing but their own unsubstantiated inclinations to do so. Some call it carding. Common law countries for two hundred years had found giving such permissions excessive. Today our fear of random terror acts is eroding that.
These ID cards are evidence of that erosion.