Accenture and BAE Systems abandon ID cards

Two major IT suppliers have pulled out of the bidding for lucrative contracts to build the systems underpinning the UK's national biometric ID card project.

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

Both Accenture and BAE Systems have withdrawn from the procurement process for contracts to build the national identity register and the biometric ID cards.

Both companies cited commercial reasons, with a spokesman for BAE Systems saying it did not feel its bid could deliver "the customer requirement".

Their withdrawal leaves only six major suppliers CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, Steria and Thales in the running to be chosen to tender for the contracts in March.

The Home Office said the procurement process is on schedule and that it will award the framework contract to five potential suppliers in May.

The first contracts to be awarded will be for the replacement of the core application and enrolment processes for passports, together with the provision of desktop infrastructure for the Identity and Passport Service. And also the replacement and upgrading of systems for fingerprint matching and storage in connection with immigration and visa requirements and transition to the replacement service.

A spokesman for Accenture said: "We did an evaluation of commercial and other aspects and decided not to continue in pursuit of the framework."

A spokesman for BAE Systems explained the reasons for leaving the process and said: "It is for commercial reasons. We bid and decided that at this stage it did not contain every element necessary to deliver the customer requirement."

The system has been criticised this week following revelations in leaked draft Home Office documents that the widespread rollout of ID cards could be pushed back to 2012 and that teenagers could be required to have the cards to open a bank account.