The Government figure fails to take into account factors such as the expected life span of the card, says the draft report. The Government anticipates that cards will have to be replaced every 10 years, when in fact the scientifically expected life span is only five years, according to the LSE.
Nor has the Government factored in costs associated with changes in circumstances (under current proposals individuals will be legally obliged to notify the ID card registry when they have a change in circumstance, such as moving house); or the costs of dealing with those individuals who do not want an ID Card.
In addition, figures put forward for the cost of biometric card readers are vastly wide of the mark: £250 – £750 as opposed to £3,000 – £4,000.
Altogether, the ID card scheme could cost more than £18 billion, as opposed to the figure of £5.8 billion anticipated by a recently published Home Office report, says the LSE.
The report, due to be published in the next two weeks, follows the recent reintroduction of the Identity Cards Bill into Parliament. The original bill was withdrawn earlier this year after it ran out of time in the run up to the General Election on 5th May.
The new report builds upon an interim report by the LSE, published in March, which found that there were serious flaws in the Government's ID card scheme, and called for the Identity Cards Bill to be abandoned.
Government proposals are "too complex, technically unsafe, overly prescriptive and lack a foundation of public trust and confidence," said the interim report – the work of more than 100 academics and outside experts in the fields of law, technology, information systems, government policy, business, economics and security.
It warned that the consequences of the proposals might include "failure of systems, unforeseen financial costs, increased security threats and unacceptable imposition on citizens."
