BBC investigation highlights big problems with ID Card scheme

9.30.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 2nd Aug 2007

An investigation by BBC 'File On 4' has shown up substantial problems with the national ID cards scheme. 16 months after passing the legislation, James Hall, head of the ID cards programme, admitted that - despite spending over £72 million to date - the scheme is still not ready for tender. His department does not yet know "the precise details of how we deliver this".

Further admissions by Mr Hall suggest that the final price tag will be much higher than the government's current estimate of £5.5 billion. Even more damaging is the claim of an academic expert in the field that the system, billed by ministers as infallible, will have errors as high as 1 in 1000 by the time just 10% of the UK population are enrolled, meaning there will be thousands of false matches.

"For the scheme as a whole it means that it can no longer deliver the goal of one citizen, one identity," Professor John Daugman of Cambridge University said in the show broadcast last night.

The government's identity card scheme will be expensive and ineffective. The Liberal Democrats would would scrap it and use the savings to put more police on the streets, and equip them to combat crime more effectively. More police will be better for tackling crime and terrorism than a piece of plastic.