Westminster Hall Debate on Identity Card Scheme

Speech by Jo Swinson MP on Wed 10th May 2006

I am glad to have secured this debate on an important matter, especially as the Identity Cards Bill received Royal Assent on 30 March.

ID cards are a controversial topic. The Government were defeated five times in the other place before the legislation finally passed after the Government's concession to delay the scheme until 2009. Public support for ID cards is falling sharply, from about80 per cent. in 2003 to just under 50 per cent. today.

The public are concerned about the introduction of identity cards for many reasons. There are real fears about the erosion of civil liberties and much confusion about what problem ID cards are suppose to solve. The suggestion that they will somehow prevent terrorism stands up to no scrutiny when the 9/11 and Madrid bombers held valid ID and the Home Office admitted that ID cards would have done nothing to prevent the7 July bombings last year in London.

Today I would like to focus on another cause of concern, which is the cost of the ID card scheme. The debate is set against the backdrop of a six-month countdown that started when the Bill received Royal Assent, and as each day passes until 30 September we come closer to the date on which the Government will have to reveal to Parliament the estimated likely cost of the identity card scheme over the next 10 years. How that will work in practice with 30 September falling on a Saturday during recess, I am yet to discover, but I am sure that many of my party colleagues are looking forward to receiving the report. It will hopefully contain more information about the cost of the scheme and with any luck we might get some information from the Minister today.

Back in 2002 initial Government proposals suggested that an entitlement card scheme would cost £1.3 billion over a period of 13 years, which would include the three years that it would take to set up the necessary systems and the 10 years in which the first cards would be valid. In November 2003, the then Home Secretary made a statement in the House in which he stated that the cost of an ID card would be £35. That changed again and by April 2005 the Government estimated that the cost of an ID card would be £15 with a fee of £85 for a joint passport and ID card application. However, that figure changed once again after the Identity Cards Bill was introduced after the general election a year ago.

The previous Minister, now Minister of State in the Department of Health, the hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), stated in the Identity Cards Bill debate on 13 February that the cost of a stand-alone ID card would be £30 and the cost of a biometric passport £63, so the combined cost would be £93. It could be argued that the number is only valid for the first year of the scheme, which will not be up and running until 2009.