Business leaders in London last week greeted the home
secretary Jacqui Smith with enthusiasm when she spoke of the
benefits of ID cards.
She was at a breakfast gathering of business people who had come
to hear how money could be made from the scheme.
Within feet of the IBM and CSC marketing stands – the two
companies which have won more than £600m worth of ID cards
contracts – fried breakfasts were being offered to all.
Smith spoke of her excitement at being able to launch ID cards
to the public. Some residents of Greater Manchester will be able to
buy an ID card later this year.
She introduced a well-made and expensive film which portrayed
the ID card as a designer brand. "Identity: what does it mean?
Sometimes it's about individuality, to say that you are you."
Post offices, pharmacists, supermarkets, high street chemists,
local authorities and universities have expressed an interest in
taking the fingerprints and photos of applicants for ID cards.
Businesses which become enrolment partners of the Identity and
Passport Service will be able to charge applicants a fee of between
£10 and £25, in addition to the £30 flat charge for an ID card. The
fee will allow them to recoup their investment in ID card
technology – and make a profit.
It sounds a good business arrangement, especially for post
offices, which struggle to exist.
The scheme could be scrapped
But something went unmentioned at the breakfast briefing.
So, after Jacqui Smith's speech, we asked her whether the people
of Manchester should buy ID cards for £30 when the Tories have said
they will
scrap the scheme. Those in the room clapped with enthusiasm
when Smith made the point that the Tories might not win the next
election.
It is an important point, though.
Richard
Bacon, a Conservative member of the Public Accounts Committee,
says that people who buy ID cards in Manchester may be wasting
their money. This is because the Conservatives (and Liberal
Democrats) have promised to scrap the scheme.
Uncertainties are compounded by a document which was published
unnoticeably last week by the Home Office, the dryly named "ID
Cards Secondary Legislation - An Impact Assessment".
The document is littered with caveats over the projected costs
and benefits of the scheme. The few figures given in the document
are in suspiciously rounded billions.
The total benefits will be between £9bn and £17bn over 30 years.
The total costs will be £7bn over the same period. So, concludes
the document, the net benefit (best estimate) will be £6bn over 30
years.
Jacqui Smith picked out this £6bn figure in her speech last
week. She told the business audience, "Figures that we are
publishing today assess that the economic benefit of a national
identity service could be up to £6bn over the next 30 years."
But the Impact Assessment reveals that the £6bn figure is based
on many assumptions, such as when and whether the public and
businesses will take to the ID cards scheme.
It is easy to believe, when reading the document, that the
figures for the benefits of ID cards have been drawn up on the back
of an envelope. The government has decided, with advice from
suppliers, that ID cards are good idea. The Impact Assessment is
there to provide a justification for an investment in the scheme of
at least £4.9bn over 10 years.
Jacqui Smith's speech was not entirely panegyric though. She
conceded that there are "serious technological challenges" to
delivering ID cards. She also said there is a need to prove that
the government can keep personal information secure.
But these uncertainties, and a host of others, seemed of little
interest to the business leaders at the breakfast event. They were
encouraging the Home Office to roll out ID cards as soon as
possible. Which would make it harder for the Tories to cancel the
scheme.
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