ID cards will be government's latest techno white elephant

WATCH out, there is a new Millennium Dome about. That’s what I thought as I looked at the government’s slightly amended identity card proposals earlier this week. The plans have got "overspend" written all over them, and I remain less than convinced that the cards will achieve anything useful.

It was also probably not the most auspicious time to launch another massive state IT project. News had gradually been filtering out about a network crash that had left 80 per cent of the staff at the Department of Works and Pensions without computer access for most of last week. That followed the resignation of the head of the Child Support Agency after it transpired that its expensive computer system was partly responsible for only one in eight single parents getting the correct awards. These are big systems, but they are dwarfed by the ID card plans.

A cost of 3.1 billion was suggested earlier this year, but no large-scale IT project ever stays within budget. That is especially true when what is being attempted has never been done before anywhere in the world.

At its heart is a national identity register which will store biometric information - probably fingerprints - and other data about every person in the UK.

Leaving aside the civil liberties concerns, does anybody actually believe this will work and be used? We have had machine-readable passports since 1988. Even in these times of heightened terrorism awareness, has your little maroon book ever been subjected to anything more than a cursory inspection at an airport?

The new identity cards are not just planned to be passport replacements, they could also serve as proof of entitlement to healthcare, benefits or library books. That means a biometric card reader in every doctor’s surgery, benefit office, library and other public building - each at a cost of, maybe, 750. Nobody really knows because no such machines exist. The basic technology is there, but the contract to maintain that much equipment will be worth winning. And the cost will be many times more than will be saved in benefit fraud.

But David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, and the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, are convinced ID cards will stop ID theft. If that is the case, it is interesting to ponder why the banks have not introduced something similar. "Identity theft" generally means the fraudulent use of somebody else’s credit card or bank account details and banks nearly always cover the losses.

One problem is that biometric tests are not 100 per cent accurate. There are difficulties with fingerprints, for instance, from the calloused hands of manual workers, growing teenagers and people from some ethnic backgrounds. Suggesting an innocent person is up to no good is bad for a bank’s business. And if somebody’s committing fraud online, a biometric ID card is not going to be much use, is it?

Unclear aims, unproven technology and a general election coming up, it sounds like a good time to be identity card consultant.

I am not so sure it is a good time to be a taxpayer.