By Gemma Simpson, 10 May 2007 16:49
NEWS
The UK's identity cards scheme will cost more than £5.5bn to set up and run over the next 10 years, according to the government.
The cost of providing ePassports and ID cards to UK citizens for the period between April 2007 and April 2017 is estimated to be £5.55bn, according to the government's Identity Cards Scheme Cost Report May 2007.
At least every six months, the government is required to give parliament an estimate of the public cost likely to be incurred by the ID cards scheme over the following 10 years.
The previous cost report - released in October 2006 - projected costs from October 2006 to October 2016 of the ID cards and ePassports scheme to be more than £5.4bn.
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But the new figure includes a £400m increase added on for the number of staff necessary to deliver ID cards, and production costs for future biometric passports. And the £510m costs incurred by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in running consular services abroad was excluded, as it does not form part of the expenditure of the National Identity Scheme, the report said.
Phil Booth, national co-ordinator at the anti-ID card group, no2ID, predicted the costs will continue to rise.
Booth said the Home Office is shuffling costs onto other departments and agencies and UK citizens will still foot the bill, no matter which part of the government spends the money.
The government estimates the use of false identity information currently costs the UK more than £1.7bn per year and the ID scheme will make it much more difficult for such fraud to occur. But Booth said the government's £1.7bn cost estimate for identity fraud and the claimed benefits of ID cards have been "comprehensively refuted."
Comments
There are 12 comments. Join the discussion
1. Haydn Rees
I decided that the only way I can derive any benefit from ID cards is to profit by making book on it.
I have £100 that says the only way the total lifetime cost of the ID card scheme will fail to exceed £12Bn is if it's cancelled.
Who wiill give me odds?
2. Richard
Over 1000 Pounds for each man, woman & child...
and that's just the Home Office's part of the cost!
In addition, other central & local government organizations, and the NHS, will also have high costs - all passed on to the taxpayers:
On top of this, the finance industry and other industries will also have heavy costs which will be passed on to their customers.
Not to mention the heavy fines for even minor infringements such as neglecting to register (for an extra fee!) each change of personal details or address.
So much for the promise to charge 'only' 93 Pounds for an ID card!
Then, if this crazy, dangerous project actually works: Exactly how will our lives have been improved?
3. David Fletcher
This, of course, will be one of the policies for which Tony issues an apology on his way out of the door.
4. Stephen
Gordon knows best how to spend OUR money (after all, he's had plenty of practise over the last 10 years)
5. Julian Nicholls
Remind me again why I'm going to pay £93 for something from which I will derive no benefit.
I haven't even paid the £17 for a picture driving licence because I can't see any point, so £93 is way out of contention.
6. Radical Meldrew
ID cards will be a massive waste of public cash on something that no-one particularly wants. Especially when we consider that Government projects invariably run over their projected budget, working or not.
Bring back democracy and give the public a chance to air their opinions!
7. Steve Watkins
Isn't it interesting that anyone who works for the IT world is actually against this scheme?
This is a vile and hare-brained project (a phrase that is insulting to hares) which ought to be squashed immediately. Why do so many dumbos in the North of England vote for this vile and disgusting party?
8. Jeremy Wickins
@ Richard - it how depends on how you define "we". If you are the "we" who are in power, and stand to derive something from it, then there is a huge benefit. If you are the "we" who will have to lump it if "we" don't start making a serious fuss about the whole scheme, then it is a net loss, both in terms of money and freedom.
9. galley slave#41
WE JUST DON'T NEED THIS!
10. Graham Coles
I thought the LSE already estimated how much the scheme would cost (around 20-30 billion), but the Government denied it.
Now after seriously reducing the work estimate, the government are increasing their own 'actual cost' figure.
So apparently it will cost more for the reduced system than it will for the original one.
Thank God they're not wasting this money on something like proper education, decent healthcare or anything like that. Much better to have a useless, intrusive piece of plastic that does nothing!
11. Adrian Tawse
Even this figure is 'spin'. The cost of administering ID cards for britsh nationals abroad has been transfered to the Foreign Offics, so the real cost has gone up by over £1bn. They have lying so ingrained in their culture they just cannot stop themselves, it is a compulsion
12. Andrew Meredith
I am still stunned at the number of people; usually those that haven't actually given it much thought; who still trot out the old favourite
"If you have nothing to hide,
you have nothing to fear"
My answer is simple. I DO have something to hide; MY PRIVACY. Privacy is the act of hiding your personal affairs from other people and particularly from the state.
Privacy is one thing that was definitely not considered in the framing of this odious law.