Report - Guardian

224 The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005procurement processes used for placing the contracts, whether contracts are likely todeliver good value for money, how the department is implementing the programme, andthe progress the programme has made. There would seem to be a case for waiting untilthe results of this report are known and its findings can be incorporated into theGovernment's assessment.The legislative uncertainty and the constantly shifting goals give the UK one of the leastadmirable track records on large-scale IT projects. The infrastructure for the identitycard, as envisioned by the Bill, is arguably one of the largest IT projects in the world. Adatabase that will in time contain over 60 million records holding a vast amount ofinformation, with on-line access, an advanced security model, and with hundreds ofthousands of users, is not only difficult to design and implement, but will most likely becostly. It is for this reason that the general consensus outside of Government is that thecard system will cost significantly more than the Government envisions.In the following sections we will re-present what is known about the likely costs of theGovernment's proposed programme. More importantly, we will also draw out whatremains unknown, rendering an enabling bill such as the one in question not onlypremature, but unlikely to achieve its stated goals.