Only one ID card supplier contract to be cut

Only the contract with Thales, worth £18m, will be cut completely

Two contracts remain in place

Only the smallest of the three ID-card supplier contracts will be cut, with one large contract being minimally affected and the other not being affected at all according to details of the supplier contract renegotiations released by the Home Office.

The smallest contract was signed with Thalesin July 2008 and is worth £18m. It would have seen Thales launch the ID cards nationwide. The company issued two batches of ID cards in 2009/2010 – first in Manchester and then in London.

The Home Office was not willing to release details of contract renegotiations with Thales but the government will probably have to pay a fine for breaking the contract.

The other two significant contracts, with CSC for £385m and with IBM for £265m, will remain in place.

The 10-year CSC contract awarded in April 2009 will remain unaffected. This contract will see CSC deliver new systems and processes to support the way applications for passports and identity cards are examined. The system will continue to be built to support passports even though it no longer needs to support ID cards.

A contract for the National Biometric Identity Service was awarded to IBM in May 2009 for seven years, and was for the storing and matching of biometric information in passports and identity cards in the future, with a three-year option to extend. The government has now scrapped plans for extensive personal details to be retained.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The cancellation of ID cards will have a limited impact on the contract with IBM, as much of the capability it delivers is required for IPS (passport) and UKBA use. The majority of the contract will remain in place to build and operate the Asylum Fingerprint System replacement.”