Gordon Brown sets up ID fraud taskforce

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown has set up a taskforce to explore the future of identity management technologies and how they can be used by both the private and public sectors.

Sir James Crosby, who steps down as CEO of Halifax Bank of Scotland at the end of July, will chair the newly created Public Private Forum on Identity Management.

Brown said the taskforce will play a key part in advising on ID management architecture across government, and build on work already underway across Whitehall.

Brown said in a statement: "The costs of identity fraud are growing, one in four criminals use false identities and as many as one in five companies could be hit by identity fraud. That is why I have proposed a forum of private and public sectors to examine fraud and security issues and consider how new technologies can help security for all."

The ID taskforce will begin work in September and its scope will include reviewing the current and emerging use of ID management in the private and public sectors and identifying best practice, and looking at how the public and private sectors can work together on ID technology.

The taskforce will produce a preliminary report for Brown by next Easter.

A Treasury spokesman told silicon.com the taskforce is part of a government-wide ID management initiative and will be monitored by a ministerial committee also responsible for the Home Office's ID cards fiasco.