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Home Office

Answer

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of (a) the effectiveness of Radio Frequency Identification projects and (b) their implications for (i) privacy and (ii) civil liberties. [220770] Mr. Browne: The Home Office invested £5.5 million in launching the Chipping of Goods Initiative in March 2000. The UK was the first country in the world to embrace the use of Radio Frequency Identification Devices (RFID) or `electronic tagging' to deal with property crime. The programme was led by the Police Scientific Development Branch and the Business Crime Team and was established as a result of the need to reduce the incidence and cost of property crime and to reduce the burden on police resources in tracing the ownership of stolen goods. It was also established to show the clear business benefits that can be gained from adopting such technology. Case studies for each of eight demonstrator projects were carried out, each one showing how the business benefited from the use of RFID. Manufacturers, retailers, consumers, the police and other enforcement agencies will all benefit from the wider adoption of this technology. The eight demonstrator projects are world class implementations and have already received five awards for technical excellence and outstanding achievement, including `Retail Technology Team of the Year' and the `European Supply Chain Solution of the Year'. Within the Identity Cards programme there has been investigation of the capabilities of contactless smartcard interfaces. However there has been no investigation of Radio Frequency Identification technologies which imply the ability to communicate with devices at much greater distances, nor it is envisaged that this would ever form part of the requirements for the Identity Cards scheme.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

432 c586-7W; 220770

Session

2004-05

Subjects

Civil liberties Crime prevention Crimes against property Finance Electronic tagging Privacy Property Technology Radio frequency identification

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk