ID cards cost nearly £250,000 daily

Monday, November 16, 2009

On the day that ID cards become available for Manchester residents to apply for, the Liberal Democrats revealed that the ID cards programme is already costing nearly £250,000 a day.

In 2008/09, a total of £81.5m was spent on the programme in terms of developing both the ID cards and biometric passport programmes. This equates to a daily spend of £229,508 a day.

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' shadow home secretary, said it was "staggering" that the government was spending this much on the programme.

"Such enthusiastic spending is brazen when public finances are under such strain and opposition to the scheme is mounting," he said.

"Ministers should explain exactly what this money is being lavished on. It is no good to pretend they do not know what ID cards cost."

He added: "Any taxpayer's money spent on ID cards is wasted – they will not fight terrorism, cut crime or halt illegal working.

"The government should put an end to the ID cards fiasco and use the huge amount of money saved to put 10,000 more police on the street."

• The Home Office has also revealed that Manchester residents will start to receive their ID cards on 30 November. Whilst the they can start to enrol for the scheme today, cards will not become available until the end of the month.

Identity minister Meg Hillier said the cards will prove themselves "extremely useful" in daily life.