ID card scheme changes tack

The government is taking the first steps to creating the national identity card project from existing systems, confirming a shift away from earlier plans to build the scheme from scratch.

Under the new approach ID cards will be developed where possible from existing Whitehall technology, procedures and information, replacing the original plan for a traditional, monolithic, multibillion-pound programme.

Contracts for existing services, such as passport applications, will be broadened as they come up for renewal to include ID card requirements. The first such procurement, for passport application call centres, starts formally this month.

Sources close to the Home Office say proof of concept studies are also under way, looking at the use of existing systems such as Department for Work and Pensions databases, the Government Gateway authentication service, and Exchange, the criminal justice data sharing system.

The change of strategy is widely endorsed by experts, but questions remain about practicalities.

‘Technically the approach makes sense, but the question is whether the pieces can really be stitched together,’ said a source close to the programme.

Major non-technical issues also remain unaddressed, says Jim Norton, senior policy adviser at the Institute of Directors.

‘Re-using existing systems is a very good idea, but whether it will work for ID cards is less convincing because success will come down to political will, who will pay, and how the people and processes are handled,’ he said.

Other contracts due imminently, and likely to be broadened to cover ID cards, include the passport printing and application systems, and biometric technology for visas, asylum applications and passports.

Some systems specific to the ID cards programme, such as the National Identity Register, still have to be developed, but will be smaller in scale.

Sir Nicholas Montagu, former chairman of the Inland Revenue, said: ‘In principle the more they draw on existing data, rather than creating a wholly new structure, the better, both in terms of efficiency and of getting the best public service.’

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