Scottish ID system

Sweet:

GOVERNMENT ministers were heading last night for a split with their Labour counterparts in Scotland over the introduction of ID cards.

The Scottish Parliament rejected the idea of the cards after an SNP-inspired debate this year. Labour ministers at Holyrood have said, however, that while they will be introduced north of the border to access services reserved to Westminster, such as pensions and welfare benefits, they will not be needed for devolved policy areas such as health, education and transport.

That raises the prospect of a two-tier scheme operating in Britain with, for example, NHS patients in England having to use their cards while patients in Scotland will not be required to present them.