‘Everybody living in the United Kingdom, including foreigners, will be required to have their biometric details recorded under the government's identity card scheme, it emerged yesterday.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, announced that all UK residents, whether or not they were British citizens, would be forced to have their irises scanned and their fingerprints taken for the national database.

"We are going to look at how we could do it for people who are already here," the Home Secretary said.

Mr Reid also revealed he had ditched plans for a single super-computer to hold the entire database.

For reasons of cost, the government will now spread the load between three existing computer systems.’

Physical Details Of All Residents To Be Held On ID Database