ID card plan to fold within 100 days

Published on Thursday 27 May 2010 22:31

THE £5 billion national identity card scheme will be scrapped within 100 days, the coalition government has announced.

Abolishing the cards and associated register will be the first piece of legislation introduced to parliament.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the Identity Documents Bill, published yesterday, would invalidate all existing cards.

Card-holders, who paid 30, will no longer be able to use them to prove their identity or travel within Europe.

And the role of the Identity Commissioner, created in an effort to prevent data leaks and blunders, will also be terminated.

The government said the move would save 86 million over four years and avoid 800m in costs that would have been covered by fees.

Ms May said that the government intended to have the bill passed and enacted before the August Parliamentary recess.

She added: "This bill is the first step of many that this government is taking to reduce the control of the state over decent, law-abiding people and hand power back to them."

Abolishing the identity cards system was a key manifesto pledge by both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats.

The Prime Minister's spokesman confirmed there would be no compensation for people who have paid for ID cards in pilot schemes.

The spokesman said: "The number of people who have been issued with ID cards is relatively small. We have taken the decision not to refund them."

Ms May said card-holders, overseas governments and border officials at ports and airports will be informed of the change as soon as the bill gains Royal Assent.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said: "Cancelling the scheme and abolishing the National Identity Register is a major step in dismantling the surveillance state."

The government still faces questions over the total cost of scrapping the sprawling project in terms of money, jobs and disruption to the passport system.