The Government's plans to resume efforts toward establishing a national identification for all Jamaicans suffered a serious financial setback with a significant reduction in funding in the newly tabled First Supplementary Estimates 2020/21.
This led to a meeting between members of the National Identification Systems (NIDS) team and representatives of the Opposition in early January, indicating a willingness on the part of the Opposition to support a new Bill.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness has publicly stated his Government's intention to resume work on the NIDS legislation, and had promised to issue new drafting instructions with increased oversight and security provisions towards tabling a new Bill early this year.
However, just weeks after successfully piloting the 2020/21 estimates of expenditure through the House of Representatives in April, the Government was forced by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to bring new supplementary estimates to the House on Wednesday, reflecting the drastic cut in funding.
The House of Representatives approved the National Identification and Registration (NIDS) Act in 2018.
