British ID cards will be scrapped within 100 days

ID cards will be history within 100 days

Home secretary Theresa May has promised to rush through legislation that will "consign identity cards and the intrusive ID card scheme to history within 100 days".

However, ID cards for non-British citizens will remain in place. There are 215,000 such cards in circulation, and these were distributed to immigrants with a right to remain in the country as opposed to asylum seekers.

The cards are called Biometric Residents Permits and were introduced under the UK Borders Act 2007 – as opposed to the ID Cards Act 2006.

The Home Office was unable to say where the permit card data was being stored.

May set the deadline the day after securing a formal first reading for the coalition government's bill. The bill also requires the destruction of the national identity register.

Her announcement was supported by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who
said: "Canceling the scheme and abolishing the National Identity Register is a major step towards dismantling the surveillance state."

The announcement means those who have bought cards will not be compensated and will not be able to use them as a travel document within Europe.

The Home Office intends to secure passage of the measure through the Commons and the Lords before Parliament breaks up for summer holidays in August.

It estimates this will save the taxpayer £86m and avoid ongoing costs of £800m a year which would have been passed on to cardholders.

The bill was the first one promised in the Queen's Speech and public panels set up to scrutinise the scheme have been disbanded.

The department has not yet made any statement about the scale of contract compensation costs but ministers will argue the risk of cancellation must have been factored into suppliers computations following the Tories' declaration in opposition that they would scrap the scheme.