By Nick Heath, 23 May 2008 16:18
NEWS
The government is facing calls to cancel its ID card scheme after it announced that all of the five remaining IT suppliers have now been short-listed to deliver the system.
Opponents questioned whether the complex £2bn system has any chance of being run effectively or competitively when the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has just five companies left to choose from and five parts of the contract to fill.
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CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, and Thales made the shortlist to win the five parts of the single "framework contract", including a £500m deal to replace the existing passport application system, the £500m biometric fingerprint and photograph database, the £500m card production scheme, a £10m self contained scheme to produce the cards for "critical" workers such as airport staff and a scheme to provide parts of a UK Border Agency case management system.
The IPS will award the three- to 10-year procurement deals starting with critical workers scheme this year and will continue to award procurements through to late summer next year.
IPS executive director Bill Crothers said they had about 150 technical meetings with the final candidates to establish their suitability.
He told silicon.com: "We decided on the five because all of them are qualified to do what we want.
"All five of these companies are absolutely past the standard that we expect.
"We have definitely got a great range and each contractor brings with them a host of talent from five to 15 sub-contractors."
Crothers said he was confident the different suppliers could gel together to deliver different parts of the ID card system, saying this was guaranteed by shared commercial terms, codes of practice and financial incentives and sanctions.
But shadow home secretary David Davis said: "Along with growing evidence of the risks and costs of ID cards, we have seen declining commercial interest, reflected in the dwindling numbers bidding for contracts.
"The case for ID cards has collapsed. Gordon Brown must now take a decision, bite the bullet and cancel this ill-fated project."
Phil Booth, national co-ordinator of ID card pressure group NO2ID, said: "How are they expecting to get best value for money when they are awarding contracts to every single company staying in the process.
"They need to get a proper specification for what they want to do and retender to get a proper competitive process, this is a recipe for disaster."
Crothers said the ID scheme would be rolled out over the next four years, starting with about 10 million "critical" workers in 2009, young people in 2010 and the rest of the UK public in 2011/12, when people will have a choice of a passport or ID card or both.
He denied the early mini system for critical workers would be any less robust than the full ID card programme.
Foreign nationals coming to the UK will be issued with ID cards from November this year under a scheme run by the UK Border Agency.
Comments
There are 9 comments. Join the discussion
1. Mike Mitchell
The UK government will use ID cards to monitor the entire population.
2. Drew Stephenson
I'm not against a basic ID card, photo, name, address, emergency contact details etc. If it was compulsory to carry (as in many countries) this would serve most of the stated aims of the project. There really is no need to go through the whole biometric ID business. The people who can fake passports nowadays will fake ID cards in the future - they'll just cost more on the black market.
And the idea that the goverment can effectively manage an IT project on this scale with 5 different suppliers, none of whom will actually be in competition, is farcical.
3. anonymous
$500m to replace the Passport system...
No wonder an adult 10 year passport is £79 and a child's 5 year one is £49. They have (our) money to burn.
4. Richard
We already have UK ID cards - masquerading as "Bus Passes."
This is John Prescott's "Citizen Card" scheme.
Largely unnoticed, the new bus passes issued from April 2008 are actually ITSO "smart cards," complete with a passport grade digital photo.
The plan is to issue these first for concessionary travel, then to school children & students, then extend their use to all local services and benefits.
These cards, card-readers and the computer systems have built-in facilities for tracking, surveillance and sanctions.
In Scotland, the similar system has caused a political storm.
5. anonymous
ID cards were initially called "entitlement cards" swiftly changed to "ID" cards, all in the name of terrorism then when that was rubbished, immigration! But I'm afraid they will be entitlement cards with the prospect of lifestyle taxing looming in the future.
My worry is that if contracts are placed with these companies and we vote this lot out, what would be the cost to the taxpayer if the scheme was cancelled.
6. CPK Smithies
ID cards are yesterday's solution to today's problem.
The moment the scheme is under development, a new international identity scheme, free to the consumer, will demonstrate its ability to deliver cheaply everything promised by the government's scheme.
Despite its being a UK invention, the UK government will do its best to warn its citizens against the new scheme, with the result that it will be years and years, as usual, before the UK catches up with the rest of the world.
.. just guessing!
7. misceng
I fear that a vast sum of our money will be spent on a failed project which only a change of government can stop.
8. Radical Meldrew
The ID card will be very useful in tracking those who act in a lawful manor but I fear it will do very little to resolve any other issues. Remember - criminals are very resourceful and nearly always find ways round the system.
9. Tony Evans
What do ID Cards Represent?
All the comments above have validity but we should recognise the core issue at stake for the people of the country as a whole.
This country and its system of government has evolved over time based on the premise that Parliament, and hence government and executive, are the servants of the people. Once we have a system of ID cards imposed as being suggested, or any variation thereof, we have enabled the change in approach to the people becoming the servant of the government.
I regard this as a fundamental and definitely unwanted shift in the way that we do things in this country. I don't care what the excuse/reason is - we should guard this approach to our way of life jealously.
Why do we think that ID cards were 'de rigeur' in the old soviet block?