Help the NO2ID Campaign track down the forthcoming Passport / National Identity Register "interrogation centres"
The NO2ID Campaign have issued a request for help in tracking down the locations of the new outsourced Passport / National Identity Register "personal interview" registration centres:
HELP US FIND THE PASSPORT INTERROGATION CENTRESAs we have reported over the last few weeks the government are planning to begin face to face interviews for first time passport applicant from autumn of this year. The project named 'Authentication by Interview' (AbI) was due to launch in October, though UK Identity and Passport Service (UKIPS) literature is now talking of "from late 2006"[1]. To facilitate this new program they will be opening 69 interrogation centres around the country. Eventually many more will be opened and by 2009 face-to-face interviews will be compulsory for all passport applicants, even renewals, as part of the ID card programme. UKIPS have announced the towns and cities where these 69 offices are to be located[2] but
the specific properties have still not been revealed. The contract to set up a new network of passport offices was won by Mapeley (the controversial property company that bought the offices of the Inland Revenue in a controversial outsourcing deal five years ago)[3].Can you help us locate the 69 centres? Has there been a story in your local paper or a planning application notice? If you have any information about the exact address of one of the interrogation centres then please contact us at (office@no2id.net).
Over the coming months these centres will be a focus of our campaigning against the ID card scheme. NO2ID has now set up local groups in 27 of the 69 locations and many of these groups have already brought the issue to the attention of the
local media[4]. If you live in one of the locations that we do not yet have a group[5] then please consider setting one up (contact us at office@no2id.net).References:
[1] http://www.passport.gov.uk/downloads/Passport-Interview-Network-May2006_new.pdf
[2] Map of centres - http://images.thetimes.co.uk/TGD/picture/0,,295266,00.jpg
[3] See 'Passport offices deal won by Mapeley' in Newsletter 41
[4] 'ID office Big Brother fear' - http://tinyurl.co.uk/bfag
[5] The remaining locations are: Aberdeen, Andover, Armagh, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Blackburn, Boston, Bury St Edmunds, Camborne, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Crawley, Derby, Dover, Dumfries, Exeter, Galashiels, Hastings, Ipswich, Kendal, Kilmarnock, Kings Lynn, Lincoln, Liverpool, Luton, Maidstone, Middlesbrough, Newport, Northallerton, Northampton, Norwich, Oban, Omagh, Peterborough, Scarborough, Shrewsbury, St Austell, Stirling, Stoke on Trent, Warwick, Wick, Wrexham, Yeovil.