All five IT suppliers in the bidding for the National Identity Cards project have been selected to deliver the IT systems.

CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, and Thales will now bid against each other for specific contracts for various different projects within the scheme.

Bill Crothers, operations director of the Identity and Passport Service, told Computing that the competition between suppliers still remained fierce.

"This has been an intensive and hard fought procurement process and I am very proud of what has been achieved," he said.

Of the original shortlist of eight suppliers for the scheme Steria, Bae systems and Accenture dropped out of bidding earlier this year because of concerns over the commercial viability of the scheme.

The remaining five suppliers will bid for five main projects within the scheme:

• A system to provide an interim capability for ID cards being issued in 2009 for critical workers. The 3 year contract worth £10m will be awarded this year with the procurement beginning in June.
  

• A replacement for the existing passport application system. The new capability will be for passports and ID cards. The 10 year contract will be awarded Q1 2009 and will be worth about £500m.

• A biometric database to replace the system UK Borders Agency currently rely on. The 10 year contract will be awarded Q1 2009 and will be worth about £500m.

• Production of the cards themselves. The £500m contract will be awarded in summer 2009.

• A system for UK Borders Agency to manage cases. The contract will be worth "substantially less" than £500m and will be awarded this calendar year.

Suppliers could win bids to jointly supply these parts of the scheme.

Crothers said the IPS have put in place a scheme of incentives and sanctions designed to encourage the suppliers to work together.

"I strongly believe the alignment of goals is key to the success of such a big project," he said.

The scheme has a similar "payment by results" outlook similar to that used in the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

Eric Woods, government practice director at Ovum, said the IPS didn't have much choice in keeping all five suppliers on board.

"Although it may have looked better if they had narrowed it, the spectre of looming acquisitions of some of the suppliers meant it made sense to keep all of the options open – three bidders have already pulled out," he said.

The current government plan for rollout is:

Starting in November this year compulsory identity cards will be introduced for foreign nationals.

From late 2009 cards will be rolled out to those employed in "sensitive roles or locations" where identity assurance is important to public protection, such as airside workers.

From 2010 identity cards will be available on a voluntary basis to young people.