Terrorists and criminals are known to use false and multiple identities to disguise their activities, avoid detection and ‘launder’ money.
The 'biographical footprint' check will make it extremely difficult to register with the National Identity Scheme under a false identity, and the scheme will not allow people to register more than once as their biometric data would be detected. While the National Identity Scheme cannot prevent terrorism, it can make it far more difficult for terrorists to conceal their identity.
The scheme will help the security services in their investigations into organised crime and terrorist activities and help protect the UK against threats to national security.
The National Identity Scheme can also be used by the police and security services for identification. For example, any fingerprints found at the scene of a crime (including unsolved crimes) that do not match existing police records could be identified by searching for a match in the biometric data held on the National Identity Register (NIR). This will greatly speed up investigations and may even lead to the identification of people involved in previously unsolved crimes. (See a case study that illustrates this benefit.)
