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ID Cards on Trial: A new silicon.com campaign
Cost, scope and technology are all cause for concern...

By Andy McCue

Published: Monday 06 June 2005

silicon.com is today launching a campaign to lobby the government for greater transparency over the £5.8bn Identity Cards Bill and to rethink key parts of the plan that leading politicians, academics and IT experts warn could turn it into the biggest-ever government IT disaster.

This isn't a campaign about the principle of ID cards or civil liberties but a campaign about what we believe to be serious flaws in the bill over the estimated cost, scope, benefits and technology. If ID cards are to be introduced we believe the project is potentially heading for disaster unless these issues are addressed now.

Some might find it surprising for an IT-focused publication to take a stand like this but we believe that at risk are not only billions of pounds of taxpayers' money but also the reputation of the UK IT industry. That's why if it's going to be done it needs to be done right.

Time is of the essence. The bill is likely to make its way through the House of Commons by the end of the summer and could be on the statute book by the end of the year.

Over the coming weeks we'll be putting the Home Office's plans under close scrutiny. Below are the three key areas that we are campaigning for the government to address.

Cost

Running costs have already increased from £3bn to £5.8bn over the 10 years, with a London School of Economics report claiming it could rise to £18bn. And the set-up costs for the IT infrastructure are being kept secret due to "commercial confidentiality" while the Home Office is in discussion with IT suppliers.

The silicon.com ID Cards on Trial campaign is calling for the Home Office to:

• Give some public guidance on the set-up costs
  
• Break down in more detail how it has calculated the running costs
  
• Break down the costs and numbers of readers and cards and the expected lifetime of these before they need to be renewed
  
• Break down in more detail how and by whom those running costs will be paid for
  
• Give guidance on the likely costs for private sector firms to use the system and what they will be able to use it for
  
• Justify through a detailed and public cost/benefit analysis that the cost of the ID card scheme is proportionate to tackling the problems it is targeting such as ID theft and immigration
  

Scope

'Scope creep' is a major concern. The stated aims have changed many times since it was first touted as an 'entitlement' card by David Blunkett. Now it's being sold as a tool for combating ID theft. The phrase 'a sledgehammer to crack a nut' crops up repeatedly and there are fears that the benefits will not justify the cost of the scheme. Despite the Home Office citing other ID card projects in Europe and around the world as evidence that they work in tackling these issues, a detailed examination of these projects (Hong Kong, Philippines, UAE) reveals a much smaller number of cards and a much narrower scope - mainly for border control. Concerns have been raised by a wide range of bodies such as the British Medical Association, the CBI and the Law Society about the scope of ID cards and practical issues about their use and enforcement.

The silcon.com ID Cards on Trial campaign is calling for the Home Office to:

• Detail the exact ways in which ID cards will tackle the stated problems such as ID theft to the extent that the cost of implementing the scheme will be justified
  
• Re-examine the need for such a broad scope for the ID card project, which adds significantly to the complexity and risk of the scheme. Other ID card projects are generally only used for border control
  
• Explain how public services such as the NHS will use the card to prevent abuses such as 'benefit shopping' and how this will be enforced. Will doctors and nurses be charged with treating or not treating someone on the basis of an ID card?
  

Technology

The jury is still very much out on whether current biometric technology is suitable for a project of this scale, scope and importance. The Passport Service's own biometric enrolment trial revealed significant failure rates which would render ID cards unworkable if transposed to some estimated 40 million card holders. Around the world, existing national ID card schemes which use biometrics are either still in testing phases or are limited to countries with very small populations where deployment is no more than two or three million people. Only fingerprint biometrics are currently mature enough to come anywhere near providing the levels of accuracy required for the UK ID card scheme.

The silicon.com ID Cards on Trial campaign is calling for the Home Office to:

• Explain the technical and practical justification for including three biometric identifiers on the ID cards and re-examine that decision
  
• Guarantee to undertake a much wider trial of the biometric technology to be included on the ID cards and publish those results before awarding any contracts or developing the scheme
  
• Publish a much more detailed timetable of the planned testing, procurement and rollout of ID cards
  
• Re-examine the current target date of 2008, which we believe is unrealistic and increases the risk of the project
  
• Give more detailed guidance on how the security of the database and the integrity of the ID cards will be protected from electronic attack, insiders and fraudsters. Cast iron assurances need to be given that the cards will not be forged or the database compromised
  

Stay tuned for further coverage on national ID cards as part of this campaign.