09 May 2008
The government's latest cost projections for its identity card scheme, which cut £975m from earlier estimates, have prompted fears that security will be compromised and costs transferred to citizens.
The Home Office report, published on May 6, says the cut was due to cost revisions, the gradual roll-out of ID cards and tendering on the 'open market' for firms to record biometric data.
The report follows an announcement by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in March setting out a timetable for implementation.
Cards will initially be targeted at workers in 'sensitive roles' in 2009 then be made available to young people in 2010, before mass implementation linked to passports in 2011/12.
The Identity Project at the London School of Economics said the report explicitly acknowledged the decision to drop the use of iris biometrics. The LSE's Dr Edgar Whitley said: 'It is worrying that the only way that the government can still keep its initial promise that an identity card will cost only £30, despite two major cost reduction revisions to the scheme, is by effectively excluding the biometric enrolment element.'
He said proposals to tender for collecting biometric data on the 'open market' would presumably mean grocery stores and post offices would be encouraged to set up 'biometric enrolment kiosks, with little financial gain to them unless the citizen is charged'.
'Ensuring adequate security in such environments will be challenging. Thus, while the headline costs of the scheme to the government go down, the costs and risks to citizens rise,' he said.
Campaign group No2ID accused the government of 'creative accounting' to reach the headline saving estimate. National co-ordinator Phil Booth said the government now appeared to have scrapped the primary pretext for the national identity card scheme by dropping plans for individual checks for applicants.
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said changes to cost estimates could not disguise the almost £5bn still earmarked for the scheme. ID cards, he said, would 'fail to combat identity fraud, illegal working, crime or terrorism'.
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