THE Home Secretary is to legislate in the next session of Parliament for a national identity card to be issued to every adult living in Britain.

The move was disclosed yesterday as the Home Office released figures showing a sharp fall in asylum applications in the first three months of the year. In spite of the fall of 32 per cent compared with the last three months of 2002, David Blunkett is to tighten asylum laws further with new measures in the autumn.

A Home Office policy paper, including a recommendation to proceed with the identity card, is likely to go to the Cabinet for agreement before the summer recess. Legislation would follow in the next session of Parliament, although the scheme would not be operating before the next general election.

The card, carrying a photograph, name and address, would be voluntary, although without it citizens would find it difficult to get healthcare or education. It would also be used in an attempt to curb illegal working in the black economy. The ease with which people can find work in Britain is believed to be one of the reasons why the country is attractive to asylum-seekers and illegal migrants.

Mr Blunkett said: “I don’t think we will get them in this Parliament. When we are talking about identity cards I want to know whether they are working legally. I want to know whether they are drawing on services legally.”

Mr Blunkett, speaking after announcing that asylum applications in February and March were at their lowest for four years, said that further measures would be introduced to curb abuses of the asylum system.

A single-tier appeal system is to be introduced to stop applicants manipulating the system and action is to be taken against people who destroy their travel documents.

Destroying travel documents will be a negative factor when an application is being processed. He is also to look at restricting legal aid to asylum applicants because of continued abuse of the system.

Figures published yesterday showing asylum applications falling to 16,000 in the first three months of the year created a heated political dispute after the Conservatives expressed “serious doubts” about their authenticity.

Oliver Letwin, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “The big question is whether there are other factors we have not been told about. Have there been changes in the numbers and use of work permits, visas and other methods of entry?”

The Prime Minister said that the figures showed “we have turned the corner” and that the weekly reports he was receiving indicated that the fall in applications had continued since the end of March. “They are calculated the same way they have been for years and years and years,” he said. “Just as in the same way when asylum figures were rising no one said the figures were fiddled, when they are falling, on exactly the same basis, people should take that as good news because it is.”

Mr Blair denied that asylum-seekers were able to get visas or work permits “in order to change the figures”. He said: “Employers apply for work permits; work permits aren’t given to asylum-seekers.” A spokesman for Mr Letwin said he had no evidence to support any allegations that the figures had been manipulated. “We are simply raising questions. We are sceptical.”

How numbers were cut

Recent measures to curb asylum-seekers:

• November: Any applications from ten EU accession states — Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia — automatically considered unfounded. No right of appeal in Britain. Total applications from these states fell from 285 in October to 40 in March.

  Immigration officers at Dunkirk and Cherbourg use technology showing image of interior of trailer and heartbeat detector for use on stationary lorries

• December: Sangatte centre at Calais closed
  
• January: New EU database of fingerprints of asylum-seekers
  
• January: Those who do not claim benefit as soon as they arrive lose benefits
  
• January: Someone with refugee status in European Economic Area barred from benefits in Britain
  
• January: Visa regime imposed on Jamaicans wishing to travel to UK
  
• February: Treaties with Bulgaria and Romania to make it easier to return failed asylum-seekers
  
• February: Those Zimbabweans wishing to travel to Britain must have visas
  
• February: Ban on asylum applications by post
  
• February: Those given refugee status in rest of EU
  wishing to travel to Britain must have visas
  
• February: Albania, Bulgaria, Jamaica, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro added to the ten EU accession countries from which asylum applications will be seen as unfounded
  
• February: British immigration officers to exercise powers within a control zone at Calais. Cannot yet turn people back, but can advise French to do so. British immigration officers can turn people back on Eurostar trains between Paris and Waterloo

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