The Identity and Passport Service has cut down the shortlist for the biggest contract within the National Identity Scheme.
IBM has been dropped from the competition for the application and enrolment procurement, leaving CSC and Fujitsu in contention. In September, the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) said that all three firms were on the shortlist for the deal, which home secretary Jacqui Smith recently estimated would be worth £350m to £450m.
However, IBM, along with Fujitsu and Thales, is on the shortlist for the smaller card-design and production contract, worth £250m to £350m, according to Smith. This deal looks the most vulnerable in the event of the ID-card scheme's cancellation; both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have pledged to cancel the scheme if they win power.
IPS announced the two new shortlists on Friday. Following the submission of detailed tenders, the service said it expects to award all contracts during 2009.
Smith recently said she expected the application and enrolment and national biometric service contracts to be awarded during the second quarter of 2009.
IPS has already shortlisted IBM and Thales for the other main contract, the national biometric service, estimated by Smith to be worth £200m to £250m.
Earlier this year, Thales won the £18m contract to provide the interim version of the scheme, and, as part of the same procurement exercise, EDS, Fujitsu and IBM were shortlisted for the UK Border Agency casework system.
The latter deal, which is expected to be substantially smaller than the main three contracts, is the only one for which EDS remains in the running, and is scheduled for award by the end of this year. The other four firms chosen in May to take part in detailed discussions have all been shortlisted for at least one of the three major contracts.
