People in favour of identity cards do not realise they will have their mouths swabbed in order to obtain biometric data on them, a leading human rights campaigner said this week.

Roger Smith, the director of lawyers human rights group Justice, told a Law Society seminar on identity cards that he himself had been 'mildly' in favour two years ago, 'but the more you look at them, the more sceptical you become'.

While acknowledging that the government could craft a case for cards that was unchallengeable by the courts in human rights terms, he said: 'The current technology is flawed, benefits speculative, practical hurdles huge, cost high, and the culture of English-speaking common law countries uniformly hostile to such an imposition on the privacy of citizens.'

Stephen Harrison, head of policy in the Home Office's identity cards programme, said the government's view is that cards could help handle the 90 million visitors to the UK annually, would disrupt organised crime, and aid people who struggle to prove their identity.

Mr Harrison emphasised that people will not have to carry their identity cards and the police will not be able to stop people to demand them.

Jonathan Bamford, the assistant information commissioner, said an identity card is 'not just a piece of paper with your photo on it' - a 'powerful infrastructure' will be created and he said it was vital that the cards' purpose is clear.

Law Society President Peter Williamson said the case for cards has yet to be made.

See [2004] Gazette, 25 March, page 15

Neil Rose