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 The original bill was withdrawn earlier this year after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."
