By Gemma Simpson, 9 November 2007 16:49
NEWS
The UK's ID cards scheme will cost more than £5.6bn to set up and run over the next 10 years, according to the latest Home Office figures.
A £5.43bn price tag covers the total resource costs of providing both ePassports and ID cards to British and Irish citizens resident in the UK for October 2007 to October 2017, with £245m being spent on the set-up and £5.185bn on operational costs.
Silicon.com's A to Z of ID Cards
Click on the links below to find out everything you ever needed to know about the government's ID card plans...
A is for Act
B is for Biometrics
C is for Compulsory
D is for Data privacy worries
E is for EDS
F is for Forgery
G is for Government IT
H is for Home Office
I is for Identity and Passport Service
J is for Jury
K is for Hong Kong
L is for London School of Economics
M is for Money
N is for National Identity Register
O is for Other cards
P is for Passports
Q is for Quarter
R is for Refuseniks
S is for Self-destruct
T is for Terrorist
U is for Utility bill
V is for Verification
W is for When
X is for Xenophobia
Y is for Young people
Z is for London Zoo
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 majority of the costs will be recovered by fees and charges, according to the Home Office.
The cost of a passport is set to increase substantially over the next five years to cover the cost of larger electronic chips that will hold more data and fingerprints, according to a separate report by a parliamentary spending watchdog.
The cost report also breaks down how the money will be spent, with the £5.43bn total split between spending on ePassports and ID cards combined (at nearly £3bn), only ePassports (£1.5bn) and only ID cards (£1bn).
An additional £182m will be dished out on top of this £5.43bn total to issue ID cards to foreign nationals, the Identity Cards Scheme Cost Report November 2007 reveals.
The report said: "As with any cost estimates covering a 10 year forward period, there are uncertainties. The estimates in this report are therefore subject to change in the light of new information or assumptions and there is a significant probability that the estimates will change in the light of further experience."
The previous cost report - released in May 2007 - projected costs from April 2007 to April 2017 of the ID cards and ePassports scheme to be more than £5.5bn.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Graham Coles
I believe the London School of Economics already said that a year or two ago. Why should this be a surprise to anyone?
The government has even ditched entire requirements for the stupid scheme to try and keep to these figures and still can't do it.
Perhaps it's time for them to come clean and publish their costings instead of constantly fighting to keep the details from public scrutiny. Or perhaps they have already lost their appeal and are having to own up to the facts?
Or have they already lost, I seem to recall they had but clearly didn't feel like complying with the law because it didn't suit them. Difficult to keep track with this government and their contradictory attitude to freedom of information ...
2. anonymous
Do the cost figures quoted include for the provision of "Readers" (SCAD's)?.
3. anonymous
I still for the life of me see how identity card will prevent terrorist form carring out the evil activities, after all most of the population of Britian have driving liecences but it does not stop them from either speeding or parking on the double yellow lines.
As far as entering this Country, with intent to carry out some deed I certainly would not enter via any airport or ferry terminal, the coast line is far to free.
ID cards are a complete waste of time, money and effort.
4. Karen Challinor
and so, now the politicians think it's too late to stop, the price starts to creep up
5. Roger Huffadine
Larger Chips!! = the morons who specified the original system didn't size the project correctly?
I bet the same morons are specifying the next generation of the system, trouble is if they get this wrong then the whole project is doomed 'cos once a card is issued you shouldn't have to change it ever again.
I bet they haven't even go a workable, sustainable, future-proof data schema yet - sales platitudes like "evolve over time" and other such crap will be caressing the ears of eager politicians.
We need politicians to be more accountable for their 'cock ups' - that way we could rest more easily in our beds and I wouldn't spend time typing invective for Silicon.com.
6. Jay
one guaranteed fact, thet fat cats will charge more than their share, no one will afford it, therefor it will flop and guess who'll have to pay, you and I.
7. I don
Under no circumstances whatsoever will I register for, or carry an id card & if enough people did the same thing, they'd have to give up the idea. Civil disobedience from a couple of hundred people they can probably tackle but millions? They'd have to admit defeat. Think about it & think about where you stand on this issue. If it would stop fraud or terrorism I would buy into it but it's just Bottler Brown wanting to snoop on every aspect of our lives.