The UK government's national identity card scheme is too
complex and the biometric technology it will be based on has not
been tested widely enough, according to the consultancy involved in
the Hong Kong ID card scheme.
Steve Everhard, chief executive officer of smartcard specialist
Multos said the UK government's plans for national database of
biometric information - such as fingerprint scans, to be matched
against information stored on a ID card - would be a time-consuming
and difficult process.
He was speaking after the Home Secretary David Blunkett,
revealed that the public would have to pay £85 for a biometric
passport and a separate identity card to offset the £500m a year
cost of the programme.
Everhard said that UK trials of biometric technology for ID
cards were too small to give a true picture of how the technology
will perform when used by tens of millions of citizens.
"I worry about some of the UK trials," said Everhard. "Don't do
a trial [for a national ID card scheme] with 30,000 people. Unless
you do it with 30 million people you will not learn a thing."
Multos has advised the Hong Kong government on its ID card
scheme, which is currently being rolled out, and provided the
operating system for the smartcards.
The scheme, which uses fingerprint scans and a facial scan, is
designed to police border control between China and Hong Kong. By
the end of 2005 all full-time residents of Hong Kong are due to
have been issued with an ID card, replacing the old paper
passes.
Everhard said the scheme benefited from having a clear purpose -
to make border controls between China and Hong Kong more effective.
The benefits of the ID card scheme have also been sold to Hong Kong
residents in a big advertising campaign, he added.
The UK's £3.1bn ID card scheme, which is due to be rolled out
from 2007, will pose formidable technical challenges according to
experts. Critics have also questioned whether an ID card scheme
will help track down terrorists, as claimed by the government.
Last month the Home Office abandoned plans to combine biometric
national identity cards with passports and driving licences
following criticisms that the scheme was poorly thought out.
The Home Office said it would press ahead with a standalone
biometric ID card that would be issued alongside a biometric
passport to head off concerns about the complexity of the
technology.
The US government will require all British citizens travelling
to the USA to present biometric passports from October next
year.
Biometric passports will cost £415m a year to run and ID cards
will cost a further £85m on top of that, Blunkett told MPs on the
Home Affairs Committee this week.