'Vast majority' of youth ID cards delayed until 2011

The Home Office will wait until 2011 to issue the "vast majority" of ID cards to students and young people.

The schedule is outlined in A Strong New Force at the Border, a document issued by the department on Tuesday, detailing plans for the UK Border Agency. As part of a timeline, the document places the work in 2011, contradicting previous indications that it would take place a year earlier.

The National Identity Scheme Delivery Plan, issued by the Home Office in March, said: "We will offer identity cards to young people in 2010 to assist them in proving their identity as they, for example, open their first bank account, take out a student loan or start employment."

A Home Office spokesperson said that, while ID cards will be issued to students and young people in 2010, "it will be at a very low volume", adding that the Border Agency document scheduled the work for 2011, as this is when "the vast majority" of such cards will be issued.

Students and young people will have a choice as to whether to apply for an ID card and enrol with the National Identity Scheme, which includes providing fingerprints. Under the March plans, enrolling with the scheme would be compulsory for those applying for or renewing passports from 2011-12 — this was not in the new document's timeline, which ends at 2011.

The plan to force airport employees working beyond passport control, as well as other "UK critical jobs" to enrol for the scheme and obtain ID cards, remains in place for 2009.

The Border Agency document also reveals that ID cards will be introduced gradually for resident foreign nationals from outside the European Economic Union. This work will start this year but, by 2010, just 10 percent of this group will have an ID card. The programme will then accelerate, with 30 percent of the group enrolled by 2011.

The Conservative party has pledged to abolish ID cards. If it wins the general election that must be held by June 2010, or shares power with the Liberal Democrats party, which also opposes the scheme, the National Identity Scheme plans look set to change significantly.