The government has issued a tender to run a procurement
framework for the
National Identity Register and the related national ID card and
biometric passport, known collectively as the
National Identity Scheme (NIS).
Initial bids to manage the procurement programme are expected to
come in at up to £500m. Speaking exclusively to Computer Weekly,
Passport Service CEO, James Hall, stood by previous estimates that
the entire project will cost £5.5bn.
Researchers at the London School of Economics have said it will
cost at least double this.
A primary reason for pursuing the project is to fight fraud.
Sources close to the government have said taxpayers are defrauded
by up to £70bn a year.
Hall declined to comment on the estimates, but acknowledged that
billions are at stake.
Hall said the NIS would help to reduce fraud and identity theft
in both public and private sectors. The benefit to UK organisations
would be “several billion pounds a year, once fully rolled-out”, he
added.
The scheme will use biographic information as well as face and
fingerprint data. This will bring the UK in line with the rest
of the European Union by 2009, Hall said.
Hall said citizens’ identities would be checked against the
Department for Work and Pensions database, and against other
databases held by police and intelligence services. It will also
check the data against the information held by the Equifax credit
vetting agency.
The DWP customer database will be the primary source of
information for the proposed NIS, said Hall. However, last month
the National Audit Office reported that the DWP suffered fraud and
error worth an estimated £2.5bn in 2006.
Hall said the DWP had done a lot to cleanse its data, and he
expected the NIS programme to help it do even more.
U-turn cuts risks of ID cards scheme >>