True cost of card

Published on Thursday 17 September 2009 20:40

With reference to your report "Labour turns to nuclear weapons in its fight for voters' attention" (15 September), your claims regarding the cost of delivering identity cards are simply incorrect.

The total estimated cost of the service for the next ten years is 4,945 million for UK citizens, including the issue of passports and identity cards. But approximately 70 per cent of this cost will need to be spent in any event just to implement and issue secure biometric passports.

In any case the operational costs of producing ID cards, like passports, are covered by fees. If there is no card, there is no money to spend on anything else.

JAMES HALL

Chief executive

Identity and Passport Service