Study finds ID scheme cancellation could save £3.1bn

The next government could make multi-billion pound savings if it cancels identity cards and fingerprints in passports.

A detailed analysis of the National Identity Scheme's costs for UK citizens by Kable suggests the £4.95bn to be spent over 10 years could be reduced by £3.08bn to £1.88bn if a future government abandoned identity cards, the National Identity Register and fingerprints on passports.

The Conservative Party has pledged to cancel the cards and the register, but has not confirmed its view on fingerprints. Cancelling cards would remove the need to produce them in either case, but cancelling fingerprints in passports would make the application process cheaper, as it could involve sending photographs by post rather than using face-to-face enrolment, according to the research.

The government plans to record all 10 fingerprints when issuing passports and identity cards, although only two will be carried on the documents' microchips. Unlike the European Schengen countries, the UK is not obliged to place fingerprints on passports.

Kable estimated that home secretary Alan Johnson's recent revisions to the scheme will reduce its cost by £700m. The Home Office published the most recent cost estimates in May 2009, before Johnson revised the plans.

"The cancellation would impact almost every aspect of the National Identity Scheme," said Philippe Martin, senior analyst at Kable and the report's author. "Not only will it avoid the cost of producing the cards, but it will also reduce the large distribution costs associated with sending new or renewed cards for those which have been lost or stolen. It would also reduce the cost of application, enrolment and call-centre processing.

"The national biometric identification system would have to deal with a smaller portion of the population, as it would no longer include non-passport holders over the age of 16. Also, the subsequent costs of managing the ID card part of the scheme would also vanish.

Martin predicted that the passport is likely to remain as the main travel and authentication document for interacting with the state, with driving licences and cards issued by local authorities used for services that do not need such secure checks.

"However, new authentication systems are likely to be put in place to enable secure online interaction with the state," he added.