Home Office minister Andy Burnham said that the schedule for implementing the ID cards scheme has "slipped" after the bill was reintroduced to Parliament last year. Originally, the first cards were to be introduced from 2007, but this has been put back by 12 months, said Burnham.
Burnham was speaking the day after the government won a series of votes on the ID cards bill in Parliament. MPs voted by 310 to 279, a majority of 31, to reject the Lords' demand that ID cards could not be brought in covertly by making them conditional on application for a passport. In further votes, a move to compel people to get a card when they apply or renew a passport was passed by 310 votes to 259.
MPs also agreed -- by 318 votes to 257-- that the home secretary should appoint a commissioner to oversee the register. A move to make the register secure was backed by 316 votes to 257.
Following the vote, Burnham was keen to look ahead to the implementation of the scheme. Referring back to 2002, when the Home Office had first set out its Entitlement Card proposals, Burnham emphasised the programme's potential for accessing government services. The government had been stressing the programme's use in tackling identity fraud, but Burnham set out a range of possibilities.
He said the Home Office is in discussions with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in order to link the scheme with the Government Connects initiative. In this way, ID cards and the National Identity Register, could contribute to providing a "single sign on" for public services, he said.
"There has been a lot of talk about e-government and about doing business with government over the internet. I think that the National Identity Register is the missing link here," he said.
"It might just be with ID cards, that it makes this whole project become a reality."
The bill will now go back to the House of Lords, but it is unlikely to be blocked and ministers expect to get royal assent for the legislation in March. The first step after this will be to launch the new identity cards agency by April and subsume the functions of the UK Passport Service.
Burnham also revealed that a consultancy contract to help set out the initial scope of the scheme has already cost more than initially intended.
The Home Office has so far paid PA Consulting £32m for its work as 'development partner' in setting the requirements specification, feasibility testing and designing the procurement for the scheme. Its original 18 month contract was worth £9.87m for the development phase of the programme and £8.87m for the subsequent procurement phase.
Quelle: KableNET, 14.02.2006
