ID cards to cost £300 each, says LSE study

The true cost of identity cards could be as much as £300 per person, more than three times government estimates, it emerged last night.

The true cost of identity cards could be as much as £300 per person, more than three times government estimates, it emerged last night.

Implementing and running the scheme will cost between £12bn and £18bn unless government departments are prepared to cover some of the financial costs, says a London School of Economics (LSE) report, expected out in June.

Ministers are determined to press ahead with the introduction of the controversial identity card scheme despite growing backbench opposition. The Home Office published a report last week, which put the cost of running the scheme, along with a new system of biometric passports, at £93 a head.

But the LSE says that the Government has grossly underestimated the cost of the technology. Its report will also warn that the introduction of identity cards will damage the whole relationship between citizens and the state and lead to the apprehending of people on the basis of information held on databases.

It will say that the elderly and those with disabilities will suffer financially, as they re-register regularly in order to ensure that their biometric reading remains accurate. Identity theft could increase as criminals use the internet to learn how to produce cards using counterfeit biometrics.