Cost revision for ID card scheme

The Identity and Passport Services at the Home Office have released the six-monthly report for ID card costs, which shows increases in the costs of the scheme.

The twice-annually reports, which are required by parliament, show the changing costs of the identity card system. Last report, the total cost covering April 2007 to 2017 was expected to be £5.550 billion for UK nationals, plus £200 million for foreign visa applicants for a total of £5.750 billion. In this report, those April 2007 to April 2017 numbers were restated to £5.365 billion and £176 million respectively, following cheaper costs for passport renewals and a fall in the base unit cost.

For the period October 2007 to October 2017, the costs for passports and ID cards are expected to be £5.430 billion for British citizens and £182 million for foreign nationals.

While lower than the April figures, don't include funds costs spent before October 2007, but include the costs expected to be spent from April 2017 to October 2017. In other words, while the total cost of £5.612 billion is higher than the restated numbers for the project, it covers a different time period, suggesting a rolling cost - in this case, of £71 million - for every six months of the project.

The Home Office stressed that the costs were keeping inline: "On the latest estimates, comparing like-with-like in the last cost report, the overall cost of the National Identity Scheme has fallen."

Infrastructure shared between the passport and identity card scheme will cost £2.964 billion over the ten years, while that related to passports only will cost £1.146 billion, and ID card infrastructure will cost £1.005 billion.

The Home Office stressed that costs could continue to change following tenders from suppliers and further experience and knowledge gained. "There is a significant probability these costs will vary as we have a better understanding of the Scheme; this process of greater understanding has recently commenced with formal procurement discussions with potential suppliers."

The majority of costs will be recovered by fees and charges to obtain the identity documents.

Just under a quarter, about 23 per cent, of the total costs are related to technology, the report said.

Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator, said the report isn't as positive as the Home Office believes. "The interrogation centres are late, fingerprinting is late, and the first contracts won't even be agreed until next summer - all this points to huge budgetary overrun," he said.

"The conveniently sliding budget looks only to the rosiest future, and fails to acknowledge the biggest black hole of all: compulsory interrogation of the entire adult population. With all those costs borne by the citizen, the Home Office is keeping billions off the true cost of the scheme."

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