ID cards and the DNA database are for the scrapheap

Along with parts of the NPfIT and other costly government IT projects

ID cards for the scrapheap

ID cards, incomplete parts of the NHS Programme for IT (NPfIT) and a large portion of the police DNA database are likely to be heading for the scrapheap after David Cameron agreed to form a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats last night.

Tory leader David Cameron accepted a request from The Queen to attempt to form a government after it became clear incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown could not command a majority in the newly-elected Commons.

The incoming government, formed from a coalition of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, is committed to policies that include scrapping ID cards, with a question mark over the identity database needed for biometric passports.

Both parties are opposed to the automatic retention of all DNA data secured by the police from arrested suspects, with DNA from children and all those who are not prosecuted or found guilty removed from the database, with the exception of those suspected of serious violent or sexual crimes.

Huge cuts in public spending, which are now imminent, must include future expenditure on the NPfIT and other government computer systems such as the Interception Modernisation Programme and the National Identity Scheme.

There is now no prospect of a 50p per landline "telephone tax" to pay for the rapid expansion of high-speed broadband – the Tories have said they will use a portion of the BBC licence fee left over from the digital switchover to pay for this rollout.

However, the expansion of broadband was given higher billing by the Lib Dems than the Tories.