Home Office ’saves’ £1bn from ID scheme - by scrapping the security
Posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 by Home Office WatchCategory: ID Cards
Released two months late, conveniently after the local elections, the Home Office has produced its latest ten year cost estimate for the ID scheme.
Campaigners NO2ID have pointed out that the report actually admits to an overall increase in costs but then dumps almost a billion pounds off its headline figure by creative accounting. This is done by delaying the rollout of the scheme to 2012, enabling ministers to omit a number of high volume costs that will occur after 2017/18, and dropping plans to check every applicant individually and take their fingerprints.
The Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne, says, “Minor changes in cost estimates cannot disguise the fact that nearly £5bn of taxpayers’ money will be squandered on a scheme that will fail to combat identify fraud, illegal working, crime or terrorism. This colossal waste of money should go on putting 10,000 more police on our streets instead.”
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