Public ‘lack confidence’ in ID card plans
Plans for a nationwide ID card scheme “lack clarity” about how much the programme will cost and what it is meant to achieve, MPs warn today.
The Commons science and technology committee says a lack of transparency on the government’s part has led to a loss of public confidence in the project, which aims to introduce biometric identity cards from 2008.
In a critical report, it also says it is “sceptical” about the government’s financing estimates, noting that the current predictions of £584 million a year in running costs do not include the start-up and technology costs.
Shadow home secretary David Davis said the report proved the entire identity card project was a “shambles”, and highlighted a “reckless lack of attention to detail” among the officials running the scheme.
However, the Home Office insisted that the technology industry was “broadly in favour” of the way it was carrying out the ID cards programme.
Yesterday, Tony Blair also defended the scheme and insisted it would remain a “major, major plank of the Labour party’s manifesto at the next election”.
The report praises the government’s “good practice” on planning to introduce the ID cards scheme incrementally, and for setting up the necessary advisory committees and risk management strategies.
But it criticises the way ministers used scientific evidence, noting that they chose which biometrics would be used in the new cards – fingerprints, iris scans and face scans – without testing them out first.
It also warns there is an impression “that the government still does not know precisely what it wants from the identity card scheme”, noting that the public arguments for ID cards have varied considerably over the past few years.
The stated aims of the nationwide ID card scheme are to protect or detect crime, ensure national security, enforce immigration controls, monitor the use of public services.
But the Department of Health (DoH) appears unsure whether ID cards would be used in the NHS, and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was recently criticised by the information commissioner for failing to make public what it planned to use them for.
“This lack of transparency and reticence to share information regarding cross-departmental uses of the scheme damages public confidence,” the MPs warn – although they also note that negative media reports about ID cards have further undermined trust.
Public support in the scheme has also been damaged by fears over cost, the committee says. While the government estimates £584 million a year running costs, the London School of Economics has said it could cost up to £19 billion over ten years, including start-up costs and technology.
Mr Davis said the report was a “shocking indictment” of the whole ID cards scheme, adding: “It beggars belief that the government is prepared to waste £19 billion of taxpayers’ money on this plastic poll tax when the project is already in such dire straits.”
Home Office minister Joan Ryan said the department would “consider very closely” the committee’s recommendations and give a full response at a later date.
