The government has said it will continue its
increasingly controversial plan to makeBritish citizens acquire identity cardsdespite documents coming to light that postpone the
deadline to 2012.
The new start date, three years later than originally indicated,
was contained in a leaked document, "NIS Delivery Strategy". The
document, classified as "restricted", was prepared by the Home
Office's Identity & Passport Service. The Identity &
Passport Service is responsible for the ID cards project, which the
government says will cost £5.4bn, but which the
London School of
Economics estimates could cost as much as £19.2bn.
Under the title "We have agreed a high-level roll-out strategy
for the National Identity Scheme", a time line shows Borders phase
1, which covers foreign nationals, starting in late 2008. Borders
phase 2, for UK citizens, is slated for 2012.
An Identity & Passport Service spokesman said, "We do not
comment on leaked documents. We have always said that the scheme
will be rolled out incrementally. We will begin issuing ID cards
for foreign nationals this year, and the first ID cards for British
citizens in 2009."
Notes to the leaked document say, "The scheme will build on and
incorporate the work of the Borders Agency, which is introducing
high levels of identity management for foreign nationals when they
apply for visas and residence permits."
Immigration minister Liam Byrne said, "Customs and immigration
officers are sharing more intelligence about threats to the country
and are increasingly making use of each others' powers to protect
the border."
He said that in "the next few years", the Border Agency would
know in advance of tickets bought for travel to the UK. Foreign
nationals who apply for visas to visit the UK already have to
provide fingerprints under
the government's £1.2bn e-Borders programme.
The Identity & Passport Service said it has issued more than
eight million biometric passports since it started in 2006. "The
next move is to include [citizens'] fingerprints in a
second-generation biometric passport, in line with international
developments in passport security. The date for that switchover to
happen is currently under consideration as the UK is not bound by
the EU passport Schengen regulations to do this in 2009," said a
spokesman.
"The
framework procurement for the scheme is currently underway. We
will make further announcements about the roll out of ID cards in
due course."