Tories slam government claims over ID card payback

Parliamentary reporter, Computing, Tuesday 27 October 2009 at 09:48:00

Half the adult population would have to sign up to identity scheme to make it
self-financing, say Conservatives

The Tories have claimed that half the adult population will have to sign up
to ID cards before the scheme will achieve the government?s objective to pay for
itself.

The estimate came from Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Grayling as
the latest Home Office figures showed the cost of the National Identity Register
and card scheme over a rolling five-year period has fallen by a small amount,
down to �4,575m from �4,580m six months ago.

The Home Office is obliged by legislation to produce five-year cost estimates
every six months. They exclude the cost to individuals of providing data to
verify identity, estimated to run at �30 a head for fingerprints and a
biometric-compliant photograph.

Grayling denounced as "deluded" a claim from home secretary Alan Johnson that
scrapping the scheme now would save nothing because it was expected to become
self-financing.

He said: "If Alan Johnson seriously thinks that nearly half the adult
population is going to voluntarily pay for ID cards out of their own pocket then
he is completely deluded. It is time the government realised this whole scheme
is a white elephant and it should be scrapped immediately.?

ID cards will become available in Greater Manchester later this year but the
government has ruled out making them compulsory for at least five years. So far,
only 10,000 people have registered an interest in purchasing a card.

The Tories are committed to scrapping the scheme if elected next year.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2252016/tories-slam-govenrment-claims