ID card and ePassport costs jump to £5.3 billion

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The government's National Identity Scheme - which includes ePassports and identity cards - will cost an extra £40 million a year for the next decade, according to a government report.

By law, the Home Office must update budget information every six months. The corrected estimate from the last report expected a setup cost of £290 million and operational costs of £4.6 billion from 2006 to 2016.

The new budget expects setup costs of £300 million and operational costs of £5.0 billion over 2007 to 2017 - and increase of £40 million a year over the next decade.

The Home Office said that the bulk of the scheme's increase in costs will go toward upgrading passports with biometric technology, while £12 million will go toward ID cards.

In a statement, the Home Office said that the jump in ID card funding was "not all that significant in the grand scheme of things and given the overall budget and size of the project".

The Home Office also stressed that the "claims the scheme will cost £20bn are sheer nonsense."

Earlier this year, IT PRO reported that the chips in the ten-year passports are covered by warranty for just two years.

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