Leader: ID cards face identity crisis

It's been just over a year since silicon.com launched the ID Cards on Trial campaign.

In that year we've heard warnings from the government's Information Commissioner that the database at the heart of the project is "unwarranted and intrusive".

We've also seen the Home Office's claims about the cost of identity fraud (a key justification for the project) comprehensively debunked, while all the time the predicted cost of the project has continued to rise.

Most recently, yesterday's Sunday Times revealed that civil servants at the heart of the project are questioning whether it can work at all. As one said: "I conclude that we are setting ourselves up to fail."

Our campaign has always had the backing of senior figures in the political and IT community - but this is the first time we've heard top figures inside the project making comments that echo our concerns.

silicon.com's objections to ID cards haven't been about the civil liberties issues (although there's a doozy) but about the way the government has insisted on commissioning one of the most complicated IT systems of all time with little understanding of whether it is possible or not.

From the complexities of the biometrics to the central database which will store huge amounts of personal information, through to the complexities of integrating ID cards with existing systems, there are big question marks over the government's plans.

As one by one the political justifications for ID cards - such as terrorism and identity fraud - fall by the wayside, and as the government seems stumped by the technical difficulties of the project, it becomes harder and harder to see why we should support it.

And when you consider the broader political scheme of things, it seems there could be more rocky times for the ID cards project ahead.

Labour isn't certain to win the next election and the Tories have made clear their desire to scrap the project - hardly the sort of outlook to make the IT companies bidding for the project happy. So with every minor delay to the procurement process, the ID cards plan risks losing more momentum.

Millions of pounds have already been spent but it's not too late to stop before that becomes billions.

ID cards have been revealed to be an all-but-undeliverable technology and lack a useful purpose. The government should put the whole project on hold to rethink the justification and the IT plans underpinning it before we have another huge IT project failure on our hands.

Read silicon.com's A to Z of ID cards for the lowdown on this controversial project.