Cost of ID card technology pencilled in at £800m

The government expects to spend about £800m on the technology for the national biometric identity card scheme.

The overall price tag will be £5.4bn, according to Home Office figures put before Parliament this week in the first of the bi-annual, legally required cost reports.

Most of the cost will be for the biometric passport scheme that will act as a first step to ID cards, Home Office minister Liam Byrne told a seminar at the Institute of Public Policy Research this week.

‘Even if I stopped the whole scheme tonight, 70 per cent of the cost will be incurred just to keep our passports up to international standards,’ he said.

‘Nor is the lion’s share of the cost anything to do with IT. We estimate that only about 15 per cent is to be spent on technology.’

Byrne also reaffirmed the strategy to use existing government systems where possible. But industry experts are unconvinced by either the budget or the timetable for cards to be issued to UK citizens from 2009.

‘Until it is clear what the government is procuring, it is difficult to define the cost,’ said Nick Kalisperas of trade group Intellect.

‘Until we see further procurement information the timescales are highly ambitious,’ he said.

The Home Office will publish an ID management action plan in the coming months, followed by agreements with departments on their uses for the system.

Former bank chief James Crosby will report on potential private sector uses for the scheme before next year’s Budget.

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Further reading:

ID card scheme changes tack