EVERY citizen could receive a personal identity number, which will be required to access public services, following the creation of the country’s first national computerised population register.

The specialised number would be used by all public services, including the NHS, Passport Agency, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority and the Department for Work and Pensions if the project goes ahead. Ministers have given the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the go-ahead to carry out development work on the project after completion of a feasibility study into setting up a register.

The “population register” would hold a range of other basic information on Britain’s 58 million residents. An individual’s name, including a woman’s maiden name, address or addresses, date and place of birth, sex and the unique reference number would be on the register. Their death would also be recorded.

The existing “unique identifier on each UK resident” — the national insurance number — has long been the subject of complaints about abuse and forgery. There are at least 60 million in existence.

The aim of the new project is to bring together in one place the basic information about people normally resident in the country. The register would act as a “one-stop-shop”, allowing people to ensure their details are correct.

The register would allow departments and local councils to link their own records to an individual’s number on the register. They would then be able to check on any change in circumstances.

The ONS insisted that a population register would not allow different parts of the public services to look at records held by another authority unless specifically allowed in law.

Liberty, the civil rights pressure group, last night called on ministers to be more open about what they were planning. A spokesman said: “Why are we getting this measure put forward now, only weeks before the Home Office is to publish a draft bill for identity cards? This looks like the identity card scheme without the plastic card.”

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