Cost of ID cards miscalculated, claims report

The government has significantly underestimated the cost of universal identity cards, warns research commissioned by the office of the Information Commissioner.

The government has not taken into account the full costs to health authorities and local councils, says the report's author to Perri 6, director at the Institute for Applied Health and Social Policy at King's College London.

The government estimates that a sophisticated smartcard is likely to cost £2.6bn over 13 years from planning to full operations, according to government estimates, while even a simple system could cost around £1.1bn.

But 6 says they are underestimating the scale of the exercise.

'This is a vast project, with 67.5 million records and 314 million cards distributed over 10 years.

'It will interface with many thousands of local authority systems, healthcare systems, police and housing, ' he said.

'The quality control issue will be difficult to tackle and will need a great many trials, so we will need project management in nearly every local authority,' he said.

According to 6, more sophisticated software will be needed to comply with the Data Protection Act.