Passport chief comments on ID Card security

James Hall, the new CEO of the UK Identity and Passport service, has just said in a web chat that the National Identity Register will be part of the national critical infrastructure and be "securely accredited".

"Our intention is that the National Identity Register will form part of the critical national infrastructure of the UK and will therefore be security accredited to the highest standard, in common with existing highly secure databases. And around this database we will have very tight controls to ensure that those able to access information have been security vetted; it will be a criminal offence to make unauthorised disclosures from the database. Of course, we recognise that criminals are getting increasingly sophisticated and we work continuously with the Government’s security community to ensure we keep ahead of them," said Hall.

We'll be chasing security experts for comment on this statement tomorrow, so do come back and read the full story.