Summary
Clamping closedown Trafalgar THE debate on ID cards comes to a climax tomorrow with a vote on the second reading in the Commons. It is a measure that has proved more contentious than almost any other element of the Government's programme - uniting both civil liberties groups on the basic principle, and the Opposition sceptics in Parliament on principle and practicability. Now a report published by the London School of Economics introduces a new element to the debate: cost.
The researchers estimate that the cost of producing cards with high-tech biometric data will not, as the Government has breezily predicted, be Pounds 5.8 billion over a decade, but up to three times that amount. In other words, ministers' estimate of a price per card of Pounds 93 could be tripled, to Pounds 300. Of course the Government disputes the figures. Cost predictions do depend on a number of factors, such as whether the cards will be updated every five or every 10 years, and whether the expense of the ID card will be subsidised by the production of passports with the same data, which people who do not travel will not have to pay for. But even taking ministers' words on all these questions, it still looks unlikely that the real cost of an ID card will be less than Pounds 100 and will probably be far more. The Home Secretary has gone out of his way to assure Labour backbenchers that poorer families will only have to pay part of the cost.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Cost of Id Cards
So who will pay for the rest - the taxpayer? If ID cards could be proven to deliver all the blessings the Government promises - protection from terror...
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