Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 231in this way would fail at a biometric checkpoint: “but many transactions might not makeuse of this facility”. 586Enrolment rateIt is difficult to assess the rate of enrolment. Already, figures differ on the number ofparticipants in the scheme, whether of the current British population or the projectedpopulation and visitors. The NPL/BTexact study assumed that the original populationestimate was only 50 million. Based on this figure, they deduced that once the schemehas been rolled out amongst the adult population, the system will have to deal withthose attaining the age of 16 and new foreign residents. The feasibility study estimatesthis throughput to constitute 3000 enrolments daily. 587Costs of building and managing the RegisterThe Home Office stated in the 2002 consultation document that trying to ascertain thecost of the database/register by basing it on the costs of databases used in otherGovernment departments and projects is not a useful comparator. This is due toadvancing technology and the cost of existing systems including additional services,which means that the costs are not solely based on the database. The Home Officeestimated that the cost of the registry would be £30 million, although the documentstates that this should be treated with caution, particularly as it does not cover on-goingmaintenance and running costs, and there is a tendency for large IT projects to overrunon costs. 588 When the cost of links to the biographical footprint-verificationorganisations is included, the Home Office’s central estimate for IT set up costs istherefore calculated at £71 million pounds, although the 2002 document advises thatthis figure should be increased by 50% to £107 million. 589The original estimates from the Home Office on the operating costs (yearly costs,separate from the one-off basic costs) contain interesting assumptions. The totaloperating and maintenance cost of the infrastructure, including links, has been estimatedat 25% per annum of the set-up costs. The Home Office argues that although this maybe a generous estimate, such caution is necessary due to the size and potentialcomplexities. Over the 13-year period envisioned by the Home Office in 2003, thecentral estimate for these operation costs is £175 million pounds. This has beenincreased by a further 50% to allow for the additional risks; consequently, the finalestimate is £263 million. 590In November 2004, the Home Office estimated the additional running costs for the new‘National Identity Agency’ to issue ID cards to be £85 million per annum whenaveraged over a 10-year period, and a further £50 million per annum for the verificationservice, again averaged over 10 years, 591 although it did not disclose exactly to whatthese costs would be additional. A later Home Office estimate, released in May 2005,estimates the average running cost (at 2005/06 prices) to be the considerably higher586 Consultation Document, Section 4, 2002, page 111587 NPL/BTExact study, 2003, paragraph 13.588 Consultation Document, Section 5, 2002, paragraph 11.589 Consultation Document, Section 5, 2002, paragraph 15.590 Consultation Document, Section 5, 2002, paragraph 17.591 Home Office – Identity Cards Bill Regulatory Impact Assessment, November 2004, paragraph 19