Report - Guardian

The LSE Identity Project Report: June 2005 243will have to be re-scanned at least every five years. This cost must be taken intoaccount. If the enrolled biometrics do not significantly mach the re-enrolled biometrics,it may be necessary to conduct another full identity check. Northrop Grumman, theoperator of the national fingerprint information system (Nafis) argued that cards wouldneed to be replaced on average every three years. 663 The question of how a card subjectis accurately verified to receive a new card is unclear, but we feel that the process willnecessarily be costly and time-consuming.Enrolment. The government appears to have underestimated the cost of other elementsof enrolment. The “biographical footprint checking” component of enrolment willinvolve considerable effort, and will encounter significant problems regarding theaccuracy and integrity of historical data. This component could conservatively addanother £10 - £20 to the unit cost. The envisioned use of credit reporting agencies toconfirm some personal data will, in all likelihood, create significant problems relating toenrolment integrity. We calculate that a median of 60,000 person-years will beexpended in registering the entire population, plus “non casual” visitors. A furthermedian of 60,000 person years will be expended in front-office operations.Card replacement. As we outlined elsewhere in this report, cards will have to bereplaced at least twice during a ten-year period. We believe the card selected will haveto embrace substantial processing power to ensure that security and functionality is fullyexploited. Research and development on encrypted biometrics will be required beforethis generation of cards can be rolled out.The Register. The cost of developing, building and maintaining the national register isdifficult to assess at this early stage. However there are clear parallels between theproposed register and the NHS Spine. The Register will involve greater complexity andmust embrace more rigorous security measures. It must also incorporate biometrics –something that we believe will be a technological challenge far greater than thegovernment has anticipated. We have therefore costed the Register at between two andfour times the contract price over ten years of the NHS Spine project.Non-Co-operation. While the government has attempted in the legislation to addressthe issue of challenges to the system by “refuseniks” through the use of civil andcriminal penalties, there is evidence that this population could nevertheless create asubstantial additional cost burden. The administrative costs of handling this group willbe substantial. It will be difficult to distinguish between intentional non-cooperation anda genuine inability to cooperate. The proposed scheme differs from benefitsadministration or other government benefits and services delivery in that it essentiallyrequires user trust and cooperation. Dedicated and systematic disruption by even a tinyelement of the population may create an administrative burden equivalent to the cost ofmanaging ten or twenty times that number of people. We believe, based on results ofopinion polling, that this group of dedicated non-co-operators may be quite significant,possibly as high as two per cent of the population. One such person workingstrategically and systematically can, quite feasibly, exhaust 200 hours of administrationtime through the generation of queries, appeals, access requests, database modificationsand general civil disobedience.663 ‘Memorandum submitted by Northrop Grumman’, submitted to the Select Committee on Home Affairs, January2004, available at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmhaff/130/130we40.htm.