Leader: Why silicon.com is taking on ID cards

You may have noticed that today silicon.com launched a new campaign - ID Cards on Trial - aimed at exposing flaws in the government's ID card plans which we believe have the potential to turn the whole affair into a costly and embarrassing IT disaster.

It's not a decision we have taken lightly but as an IT publication we have heard too many voices of concern from across the political parties, from respected academics and, most tellingly of all, from within the technology industry itself to ignore the issue.

You can see who is backing our campaign and their comments here. Others have not gone on the record but we've heard IT suppliers tell us off the record that the Home Office civil servants are some way behind the curve in terms of how to do this project and that they are being led too much by bullish consultants and IT sales people with pound signs in their eyes.

While we wouldn't wish to tar the entire UK IT supplier community with that brush, we have seen with previous large government IT projects that over-promising and under-delivering is a dangerous path to go down. There is an onus here not only on the Home Office to be more open but also on the IT industry to be responsible and realistic about the capability of the technology and the cost and scope of the project.

A successful ID card scheme has the potential to be of huge benefit to this country's citizens. A failure, however, could irreparably damage the reputation of the IT industry. A key concern of ours is that the combination of biometric technology currently being touted by the Home Office is still far from being robust enough for a project of this size and importance.

This campaign is not about being for or against ID cards in principle. Yes, there are civil liberties issues at stake here but that is not for us to get in to. What we can do is play a role in garnering support and momentum from stakeholders in the public and private sector to push the government into addressing very serious concerns about the cost and implementation of the ID card plans.

Follow silicon.com's campaign coverage over the coming weeks, during which time we'll be scrutinising every aspect of the ID card bill and the government's claims.