The new identity card was unveiled today by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.
It is blue and pink, credit card-sized and carries the royal crest and four flowers representing the nations of the UK: the rose, the thistle, the daffodil and the shamrock.
The cards, which will be issued to foreign workers from November, will display the individual's name, their photograph, the card's expiry date and details of how long they can stay and work in the country.
On the back it will also show their date and place of birth, their gender, nationality, and whether they are entitled to benefits.
Biometric data, including copies of the person's fingerprints, will be stored on a special security chip.
Ms Smith said the cards would protect against identity fraud, illegal working, and help people prove their identity easily.
She said: "Many people want securely and quickly to be able to prove their identity and want to be able to check people are who they say they are."
Between 50,000 and 60,000 cards will be issued by the end of next March and ministers predict one million a year will be issued from 2010.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article