ID card scrutiny under threat

Parliamentary scrutiny of ID cards and other technological and scientific issues could be seriously undermined by the new administration's reorganisation of governmental departments, according to members of a crucial committee.

Brian Iddon, MP for Bolton South East and a member of the House of Commons Science and Technology select committee, said on Thursday that proper oversight of scientific and technological issues could be threatened by the abolition of both the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

The DfES has been split by the new prime minister, Gordon Brown, into the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), while the DTI has been disbanded to allow the formation of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR).

One department that had to make a transition was Sir David King's Office of Science and Innovation — previously under the DTI but now folded into DIUS. This development has caused alarm among members of the Science and Technology select committee, with Phil Willis, the committee's chairman, claiming earlier this week that "the focus on science and technology may be diminished" by an increased focus on the universities agenda. The new science minister, Ian Pearson, tried to allay these fears by promising that science would be "at the heart of" DIUS, but Willis has since maintained his stance.

Now Iddon has added his voice to those expressing concern over the future of the committee. Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk at a Westminster eForum on ID cards, surveillance and data security on Thursday, he explained that the subsuming of the Office of Science and Innovation into DIUS — carrying the Science and Technology select committee with it — would be likely to result in the committee producing only one report on science and engineering per year, compared with the six or seven it has until now produced per year. He also said that the committee's members are currently battling to retain the committee's current cross-departmental nature, which arguably provides a broader perspective over the issues it examines.

Iddon conceded that parliamentary scrutiny of the introduction of ID cards would "probably" be at risk if the select committee ceased to exist in its present form. "I doubt whether the Trade and Industry select committee would look at it," he said. "The Public Accounts committee could look at it from a cost point of view, but from a science aspect? I don't think so. Parliament wouldn't do it to the depth that the Science and Technology select committee have done it in the past."

Last year the House of Commons Science and Technology committee produced a crucial report into the ID cards issue, entitled "Identity Card Technologies: Scientific Advice, Risk and Evidence". It was in an official response to that report that the government admitted the scheme would not be fully tested before being put into practice. There is also a Science and Technology committee in the House of Lords, although that committee is not likely to be affected by the governmental reorganisation.

A decision on the future of the Science and Technology select committee was due last week but has been deferred, probably until next week.