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A biometric card is harder to forge than an email I suppose?
EU citizens with EUSS face the problem that many employers and landlords don't recognize or accept the email...which is all we get. (You get a share code for them but it's digital only)
Some people get hassle at the border, that reduced after a big row with the EU a few month back.
Of course you are right a register is often better (might have issues too?), and that would have avoided many issues with EUSS as well.
JWestland-
A biometric card needs renewal and employers/landlords don't have the equipment or skills to verify the card or read any biometric bit. The share code seems much more sensible for non-real time needs like those. Getting rid of the paper counterpart to driving licences and switching to an online system was sensible IMHO and where checks are needed we should have more like that.
The problem is treating 'people from not round here' differently. Loads of people are up in arms at the idea of a central database of UK citizens but seem happy for non-citizens to be tracked all over the place. We should have a single system for all people in the country.
jellybaby
I'm not convinced a biometric card is the answer. In lots of parts of the world you have an official residence and have to register with the local town hall so there is actually a list of who lives in the country (independent of citizenship etc). We don't have anything like that in the UK, if we did it would be fairly easy to establish things like this.