ID cards plan 'still on track'

The Home Office today denied that it was performing a "complete roll-back on identity cards by restricting trials to workers at just two airports.

Airside workers at all UK airports were due to be issued with ID cards from the second half of 2009 under the Home Office's delivery plan, which was published in March.

But Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is now expected to confirm that there will be an 18-month pilot scheme at just two airports – London City and Manchester.

Her decision follows opposition from the Unite union, which argues that ID cards require fewer checks than existing security measures. The unions also argue that staff would have to pay £30 for a card to do their jobs – although cards would be free of charge during the pilot scheme.

Phil Booth of the NO2ID campaign said: "We are seeing a rather transparent attempt, I think, to save some ministerial face.

"The unions and the industry are clearly opposed to this and if the government were to try to force this on the 200,000 airside workers they had previously claimed, then they would find themselves either in court or facing industrial actions," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He added that the pilot scheme represented a "complete roll-back" from the government's original intention.

Non-EU foreign nationals who are students or marriage visa holders will be issued with ID cards later this month.

The Home Office's delivery plan, published on March 6, then states that: "From 2009, the scheme will be extended to UK citizens. The first ID cards will be issued to people working in specific sensitive roles or locations where verification of identity will enhance the protection of the public. This will start in the second half of 2009, with the issuing of identity cards to those working airside in the country's airports."

The Home Office said that the second half of 2009 would mark "the start of the roll-out" and that it was "still on track in that way".

Later today, the home secretary is expected to unveil plans for private firms, shops and the Royal Mail to bid for contracts to fingerprint millions of people for the new identity cards.

The government is aiming to contract out the task of gathering biometric data for new passports and ID to the private sector, according to the Daily Mail.

Applicants will have all 10 fingerprints and their faces scanned. The data will then be passed to the Identity and Passport Service to be stored on the new, computerised national identity register.

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed that the government wanted to create a network of "convenient outlets" where people could easily go to complete the application procedures for the biometric documents.

Smith, who is delivering a keynote speech on ID cards later today, is also expected to disclose that the cost of the scheme - previously estimated at £4.5bn - is now closer to £5bn.

Booth warned that private companies were unlikely to be interested in bidding for contracts which would be scrapped if Labour loses the next general election.

Full story here.