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Home office reveals ID cards cost Home office reveals ID cards cost
(about 1 hour later)
The UK's national identity card scheme will cost £5.4bn to set up and run over the next 10 years, the Home Office has revealed. The UK's national ID scheme will cost £5.4bn to set up and run over the next 10 years, the Home Office says.
It is the first time the government has set out a total cost for the controversial project. It is the first time the government has set out an estimated total cost for the controversial project.
Ministers claim the scheme will help clamp down on illegal immigration and fight terrorism. Ministers claim the scheme will fight illegal immigration and terrorism.
But the Tories and Lib Dems say it is a costly infringement of civil liberties which should be scrapped. But the Tories, who want the scheme scrapped, say the true cost is likely to be £20bn and the cash would be better spent on building more prisons.
Home office minister Liam Byrne confirmed ID cards would be introduced "rapidly", starting with biometric cards, which include fingerprints and facial images, for foreign nationals in 2008. Shadow home secretary David Davis said: "The Home Office has an absolutely appalling record for delivering IT-based projects on time and on budget.
Speaking at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), Mr Byrne said combating illegal immigration was at the centre of the ID card scheme. "Independent experts have predicted this plastic poll tax will in fact cost nearly £20bn."
"Illegal working will become far more difficult as the National Identity Scheme is rolled out," he said. He said ID cards would "do nothing" to improve security and "may make it worse".
"Any employer would be able to check a person's unique reference number against registered information about their identity to find out whether someone is eligible to work in the UK. "What the government should be doing is answering our calls to establish a UK border police, putting more police on the streets and appointing a dedicated minister to co-ordinate our security efforts," added Mr Davies.
Doubts
The ID card scheme will force every adult in the UK to pay for a "biometric" card which stores fingerprint and iris scan details.
Leaked e-mails earlier this year suggested civil servants had serious doubts about whether the scheme could be implemented.
Two weeks ago it emerged that the government would attempt to save cash by using existing government databases to set the scheme up.
Ministers are wary of opting for a single "big bang" solution, favouring instead a series of smaller IT contracts.
But home office minister Liam Byrne insisted ID cards would still be introduced "rapidly", with the first biometric cards coming into use in 2008, for foreign nationals wanting to work in the UK.
'Powerful tool'
Speaking at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), Mr Byrne said: illegal working by immigrants could "become far more difficult".
He added: "Any employer would be able to check a person's unique reference number against registered information about their identity to find out whether someone is eligible to work in the UK.
"ID cards will give us a powerful tool to combat identity fraud which underpins organised crime, terrorism and abuse of the immigration system."ID cards will give us a powerful tool to combat identity fraud which underpins organised crime, terrorism and abuse of the immigration system.
"ID cards will also help transform the delivery of public services to the citizen, making interactions swifter, more reliable and more secure and helping to reduce costs by eliminating wasteful duplication of effort," said Mr Byrne. "ID cards will also help transform the delivery of public services to the citizen, making interactions swifter, more reliable and more secure and helping to reduce costs by eliminating wasteful duplication of effort."