11 Sep 2009
The ContactPoint children's database, the NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT), and the identity cards scheme should all be abolished, according to a plan to save £50bn a year of public spending put forward by the Institute of Directors and the TaxPayers' Alliance.
The report claims that abolishing ContactPoint would save £44m from 2010-11 onwards, the annual running costs of the database.
"Given the government’s appalling data security record, the children’s
database is
an accident waiting to happen. It should be abolished," says the report.
Scrapping NPfIT will save £1.2bn a year, says the report, because it was never wanted by most NHS clinicians; it is running late; has unresolved issues over patient confidentiality; and it is too expensive.
Abolishing identity cards would save £55m from 2010-11 onwards, which represents the Identity and Passport Service’s (IPS) estimate of the gross costs of providing ID cards to British and Irish citizens in 2010-11. The figure does not include the cost of biometric passports.
"Even if we accept the government’s own cost projections, abolishing the [ID cards] programme will still save up to £1.3bn over the next decade," says the report.
The Conservatives have promised to abolish identity cards and have proposed alternatives to the summary care record, which is the main expense of the NPfIT. They have also heavily criticised ContactPoint.
Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors, said cuts desperately need to be made.
"Businesses are right now making savings and cutting back on costs to get through the recession, and there is no reason why the public sector should not have to do the same," he said.
The quoted costs of producing the national identity are only the roll-out costs for the Home Office. If the National ID is introduced and becomes widely used in every day life then there will be large roll-out costs for all other government departments, county councils and other public bodies too. In addition high street retailers, the banking industry, Doctors surgeries, Police departments ect will also have to invest in ID card readers, and the supporting IT infrastructure and back office systems to support its ubiquitous use. Independent investigators have estimated that this will add 5 to 10 Billion pounds to the overall cost of the ID card project, which of course will have to be bourne by the general tax/rate payer over the coming years. These are hidden, future costs that Nu Labour and their EU sponsers conveniently forget to mention when they publish their figures. Anyway, as 85% of the population already possess either a Driving Licence, Passport or both, why should people pay another 60 pounds for yet another plastic card to carry around, yet another database, yet another set of beurocracy? There is more than enough official identification around already, with out wasting the public's money on this Nu-Labour clap-trap.
Posted by: Captain Mainwaring 22 Sep 2009
The report seems to be poorly researched on more than one issue. In addition to the misunderstanding of the NPfIT, it's also wrong on ID cards. Once operational (in a couple of months time according to some media reports) ID cards will run on a cost recovery system, in the same way as currently happens with passports. This means the expenditure on issuing identity cards is recovered through the fee charged for the card, and not from taxation. There are arguments for and against ID cards, but it doesn't make sense to include them as a potential saving for the public purse. It isn't taxpayer's money that pays for 'em, ergo axing ID cards will not improve the public finances one bit.
Posted by: Nero 14 Sep 2009
I can only assume Miles Templeman really does not have a clear understanding of what the NPfIT actually is.
It is a collection of many many separate programmes and projects , most of which will support (and improve) the direct delivery of clinical care.
It is NOT simply about creating a national record. If it was, and if THAT was costing us £1.2 billion a year then I'd agree with him.
But it is not, so I don't !
Posted by: Sean Brennan 11 Sep 2009
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