ID Card Scheme 'Pushed Back Two Years'

23 January 2008

A leaked Home Office document reveals plans to postpone the mass issue of ID cards in the UK by two years, the Conservatives have claimed.

The Tories unveiled a document written for the Home Office's senior management board which suggests a postponement from 2010 to 2012. Written on 20 December 2007, the document entitled National Identity Scheme Delivery Strategy says: "We have agreed a high level roll out strategy for the National Identity Scheme." Then, in a diagram revealing the latest timetable, it says: "2012: Borders Phase II (UK Citizens)."

The Conservatives claim that contradicts the Home Office's ID cards Action Plan, published in 2006, which said: "2010: We will issue significant volumes of ID cards alongside British passports".

Shadow home secretary David Davis told Sky News: "The Government's ID card project has lurched from shambles to shambles. Now it is in the intensive care ward. It is a project that will do nothing to improve our security and may actually threaten our security."

In response, an Identity and Passport Service spokesman said the Home Office did not comment on leaked documents. But he then issued this statement: "We have always said that the Scheme will be rolled out incrementally. As stated in the Strategic Plan for the National Identity Scheme published in December 2006, we will begin issuing ID cards for foreign nationals this year, and the first ID cards for British citizens in 2009."

"By linking fingerprints to a secure database with strict rules outlining its use, the National Identity Scheme will allow individuals, business, and the state to prove identity more securely, conveniently and efficiently while protecting personal information from abuse."

"The Identity and Passport Service successfully introduced the first biometric passport on time and on budget in 2006, with over 8 million now issued. The next move is to include fingerprints in a second generation biometric passport, in line with international developments in passport security."

The Tories have suspected there may be a U-turn from Mr Brown on ID cards since he said in a newspaper interview on 6 January this year: "Under our proposals, there is no compulsion for existing British citizens."

Challenged on this in PMQs on 9 January by David Cameron, Mr Brown said: "It is the Government's policy to move ahead with this, but subject to a vote in Parliament and depending on how the voluntary scheme goes."

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