Report - Guardian

202 The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005by individuals in a variety of ways. Some people could choose to payincrementally, through mechanisms such as saving stamps andcredits.” 468The cost of the larger system was then described as:“We have estimated total set-up costs and revenue over the first threeyears at around £36 million, £60 million and £90 million,respectively… The charge under debate will be met by each personwho receives a card for a service from which he or she willbenefit.” 469However, the system involves more than just paying for the card, the biometriccollection, and the set-up costs: issues such as system integration, data management andaudit need to be considered. When the Identity Cards Bill was introduced for secondreading in December 2004 the Government was less willing to discuss costs in detail.According to then Home Office Minister Des Browne,“The functionality of an identity system, as we debated in great detailin the context of the identity card for the electoral system in NorthernIreland, depends on a number of layers, and can be used in differentways. Of course there will need to be readers, and if we are to usecards for access to public services that will need readers too, but eachdecision will need to be made on a case-by-case basis for the purposesof those public services, according to a cost-benefit analysis of whatinvestment we need to put in to get the best benefit out—[Interruption.] That is the proper answer, and the hon. Gentlemanknows fine well that it is.” 470This statement underlines the uncertainty of the costs associated with the Bill. Thesecosts are likely to rise as the project develops, and one of the key reasons for this is theongoing work by the Home Office to consider the potential design. According to thedirector of security solutions at QinetiQ,“The Home Office wants matching online because it wants to keep aneye on the bad guys and keep an audit trail. But that means talkingover the internet to the central database. We are saying it is a step toofar.” 471In January 2004, BT warned the Home Affairs Committee that the database would haveto be designed with care. BT stated that the storage and interrogation of data in theNational Identity Register would be “heavily reliant” on the architecture, and this would468 Hansard, November 11, 2003: Column 173.469 Hansard, November 11, 2003 : Column 178.470 Hansard, December 20, 2004.471 ‘ID card plans are too complex and too expensive, government is told’, Bill Godwin, Computer Weekly, February15, 2005.