The National Identity Register (NIR) will hold a single highly reliable record of each person's identity, with checks having being made as appropriate, for example against passport or immigration records. The NIR will link each individual's record to their biometric data.
Recording biometric data from every applicant will prevent ID cards being obtained in multiple identities, since an individual's biometrics could be registered only once.
Although we cannot prevent every case of forgery or card theft, no-one using a stolen or forged card would be able to pass a biometric identity check as their biometrics would not match those held on the NIR.
