Doubts have surfaced over the future of the government’s controversial identity card programme after it emerged that the compulsory roll-out of ID cards to British citizens might be delayed until after the next election.

A leaked document obtained by the Conservative party last month indicated that the phase relating to UK citizens would not start until 2012 – two years later than the Home Office had planned.

ID cards will be introduced this year for some foreign nationals, possibly including students and those married to or in long-term relationships with British nationals.

The cards are also expected to be brought in from next year on a voluntary basis for some UK citizens employed in “positions of trust”, such as teachers and social workers.

But the second phase of the national ID card scheme, which applies to all UK citizens, will not start until 2012. And making access to public services conditional on possession of a card is unlikely to be brought in until 2015.

The Conservatives seized on the delay as evidence that the government was getting cold feet amid widespread opposition to the scheme and growing embarrassment over the series of data losses that have engulfed one Whitehall department after another.

David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “What this [leaked] document suggests is that the ID programme is in the intensive care ward at a time when there is a clear fracture in public confidence in the government’s ability to handle data.”

A spokeswoman for the Home Office told IWR that it had always intended the scheme to be rolled out incrementally. “We will make further announcements about the roll-out of ID cards in due course,” she said.

In a further blow to the scheme, the British defence company BAE Systems and the global management consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture both withdrew last month from the procurement process for the national ID card programme.