Home Department written question – answered at on 19 June 2007.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has made an estimate of the cost to date of researching and developing the identity cards scheme.
Between the financial years 2003-04 and 2005-06, £41.1 million was spent by the Identity Cards Programme in total.
Since the merger of the Home Office Identity Cards Programme and the UK Passport Service to create the Identity and Passport Service on
As a result, much of the work conducted by Identity and Passport Service cannot be categorised, both financially and operationally, as contributing towards either the introduction of biometric passports or identity cards alone. The work is accounted for as future development projects. In the 2006-07 financial year, the cost of such development projects was £32.7 million.
Even without the introduction of identity cards, a significant proportion of this expenditure would have been required in order to prepare for the introduction of second biometric passports. Overall, it is estimated that around 70 per cent. of the total cost of the scheme would need to be incurred in order to introduce the second biometric passport incorporating fingerprint biometrics.
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