Thousands of businesses to be authorised to make biometric checks on customers

摘要

The government has revealed that tens of thousands of businesses will be accredited to make identity checks on customers and employees, should ID cards be introduced as planned in 2007. Documents released by the Home Office last week predicted that 44,000 businesses and 256 government bodies would be given rights to check individuals' details against a national population database. Officials conceded, however, that the figure was probably a "significant underestimate" and that in practice many more firms would be licensed to use ID cards to verify identities.