Companies ready to bid for ID cards

Nigel Morris
The Independent
Aug. 11, 2007

Contracts worth a total of £2 bn to run the national identity card scheme were offered yesterday by the Home Office.

The move marked an important milestone for the controversial project, which will see the first ID cards issued to British citizens by the end of 2009.

The cards will initially contain photographs and fingerprints, although the Home Office is leaving open the option of eventually including other biometric data, such as iris scans. Five companies will be chosen to supply computer equipment and manage the national roll-out of the cards. They will be offered contracts ranging in value from £50m to £500m. The successful bidders will be required to demonstrate that they can work together to implement the scheme.

IBM, Microsoft and Accenture are among the companies that have expressed an interest in running the £5.7bn identity system.

The first contracts are expected to be handed out in May, although potential bidders will be invited to a conference organised by the Home Office next month. The contracts could last up to 10 years, even though the Tories have said they will scrap ID cards if they win the next election.

Bill Crothers, the commercial director of the Identity and Passport Service, promised that the Government would learn from mistakes in running previous IT schemes when managing the ID-card system. He said: "We've studied many projects and spoken to people in government and industry on what has been successful or not."

The scheme was championed by Tony Blair as a crucial tool to combat identity fraud, organised crime, terrorism and illegal immigration. Gordon Brown has confirmed he would press ahead with its introduction.

Opposition parties and civil liberties groups claim the scheme will be ineffective and could soar in cost up to £19bn, more than three times the Home Office budget. Under the plans, non-EU nationals living in Britain will be issued cards next year, with British citizens beginning to receive them in 2009. It emerged yesterday that all 10 fingerprints would be collected and recorded.

About four million a year will get the cards when they renew their passports once the scheme is off the ground.












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