The Home Office will call for bids for the first two
pieces of work on theNational Identity Schemein May
2008.
The call for tenders for a biometric database and the
application and enrolment operation will be issued as soon as the
government finalises the participants in its framework procurement
agreement, which is expected by May, a Home Office spokesman
said.
On 19 October, the Identity and Passport Service shortlisted
eight firms for a framework agreement to supply the
National Identity Scheme
infrastructure: Accenture, BAE Systems, Computer Sciences
Corporation,
EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, Steria and Thales. The Home Office said it
might trim this list in December.
Home Office accounts show the government spent £31m on the
National Identity Scheme last year. Estimates of the 10-year cost
of the scheme and electronic ID cards, which are due to be phased
in from 2009, rose £65m in six months, due mainly to VAT.
The government's estimate of the cost of the system was £5.56bn
in May 2007. This was later revised to £5.37bn. According to
figures presented to parliament on Thursday, the estimated cost has
risen to £5.43bn. However, the London School of Economics has put
the cost closer to £14.5bn.
The money will come from the Home Office budget, which will rise
from £9.8bn to £10.315bn between 2008 and 2010. Spending will be
managed by the Identity and Passport Service, with major investment
expected to start from mid-2008.