The cost of the ID card scheme has gone up by £400m to £5.31bn. The opposition claims that the government was "burying bad news", releasing the figure as Tony Blair announced his departure.
The Home Office say the increase was due to staff and anti-fraud expenditure.
The Home Office must give an update on the costs of the scheme twice a year. The latest update, due on 9 April was announced today amid claims that the Home Office broke the law by delaying the announcement.
The Home Office said it had released the figures "as soon as we possibly could" and that the release of the figures on the same day as Mr Blair's departure announcement had been coincidental.
Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: "The public will see through this transparent and pathetic attempt to bury bad news. It is also no surprise the government has had to revise their cost estimate up by so much. The public should brace themselves for more increases every time this estimate is updated."
Liberty Director Shami Chakrabarti said: "The soaring costs and declining support for the grand ID card folly are increasingly inescapable. Surely this dangerous and expensive idea must leave Number 10 with its author?"
Phil Booth, of NO2ID said: "With each new analysis, the cost of the ID card scheme spirals."
ID cards will become compulsory in 2010 when all passport applicants will be issued with ID cards.
How can a supposedly democratic government force upon us an ID card scheme that many of the population are against. Adding insult to injury they are using our tax money to fund an ID Card Scheme which we will be asked to pay for again later.
6 comments:
The British people are
stupid as far as this government is concerned. ID cards
are are not something that is needed our civil Liberties are.
Without ID cards Hitler would never have had the power to carry out his plan. This plus a cashless society will give Goverment complete authority over any individual,in fact they will own us. If people go along with this they deserve to lose their freedom!
In America the Dept. of Homeland Security is beginning a program of setting up random roadblocks on federal highways and demanding that people they stop prove their citizenship.
Documents must be produced but the Dept. won't say which documents.
People with any criminal convictions even fifty years in the past will be "flagged" but the Dept. refuses to tell what that means.
Eventually there will be two classifications of travelers those who are approved to travel and those who aren't.
But the Dept. refuses to elaborate any further.
Its the beginning of an internal passport system, a rigid hiararchical system in which the people on top will forever be on top and the peopole on the bottom will forever be on the bottom.
A police state. At least in my opinion.
The liberty of free people dies the death of a thousand little cuts.
Old Labour, New Labour, Blair's Labour, Brown's Labour.
SAME LABOUR.......
Anon, added to that, the information held on the ID Cards will be shared with other European countries.
Xenophon, the lack of internal borders and check points are what most people consider a major contributing factor to a free country. I share your concern that this liberty may be taken away.
Anon@13:31,
Let's hope Gordon will see sense a scrap this money pit.
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