The government is considering charging people to enter and leave the UK, to offset the running costs of its electronic borders programme.

The planned eBorders system will link government agencies to travel operators and transport hubs such as airports and docks.

It will log, cross-check and authorise all passengers crossing UK borders at the point of departure, helping to fight terrorism, crime and illegal immigration, says the Home Office.

According to a report published ahead of this week's debate on the Immigration Bill, which includes the data-sharing provisions required for eBorders to proceed, the initial investment will be made by the government, but ongoing costs could fall on passengers.

'Work is under way to establish the practicality of charging passengers a small fee to cover costs,' according to the Home Office document.

'In the medium to long term it is forecast that the financial benefits for all the agencies involved will significantly outweigh expenditure,' it says.

The eBorders technology deal, due to be signed in 2006, is expected to be worth £400m. Airlines face capital investment of up to £4m and annual running costs of £500,000 to extract and transmit their data to the government's eBorders database.
Projected quantifiable benefits of eBorders over 15 years include £976m to be saved by reducing the government's processing costs and improving efficiency, £158m to be cut from benefit fraud by establishing a comprehensive passenger movement record, and £183m to be saved by collecting embarkation data without the cost of establishing staffing controls.

Attempts to make passengers pay for the running costs are in line with Whitehall's approach to all of its major IT programmes, says Mike Davis, senior research analyst at Butler Group.

'The Exchequer tries to make these deals a zero-sum game - it puts in the necessary investment up front and then looks to make the system pay for itse lf,' he said.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Alistair Carmichael said: 'The fact that you may be expected to pay for the government to have the privilege of tracking you is pretty rich.'

An eBorders trial called Semaphore is under way, and the government says it is working with suppliers to get the technology right for the main programme. Implementation starts in 2007, with the system fully up and running by the end of 2010.