Sandie Seward
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ID Card scheme will probably "be delayed"A plan to introduce compulsory identity cards may be delayed, the government said on Tuesday, adding to speculation one of the world's largest IT projects could be scaled down or scrapped.
The introduction of biometric ID cards, the most ambitious scheme of its kind according to experts as they would carry fingerprint, iris and face-recognition technology, had been set for 2008.
However the Home Office confirmed the timescale would depend on a departmental review ordered by new Home Secretary John Reid and said the cards would only be introduced "when the time is right".
But it insisted the scheme would go ahead.
"We want to ensure we get the scheme right and do it in the right way rather than stick to any timetable," a Home Office spokesman said.
"Biometric identity is absolutely central to our future plans. We have always made clear that its introduction would be in stages -- an incremental process."
The statement follows the publication of leaked e-mails in a Sunday newspaper which said they were from senior civil servants involved in the scheme, expressing doubts about its feasibility.
Media reports said ministers were now preparing to scale down the project and come up with a compromise "face-saving" alternative scheme.
Any failure to bring in the cards on time would be an embarrassment for Prime Minister Tony Blair who has long championed their introduction, saying they were vital in tackling terrorism, fraud and organised crime.
But critics have leapt on the news as proof that the ID cards, which could cost as much as 19 billion pounds according to academics at the London School of Economics, would be an expensive white elephant that infringe on civil liberties.
"The government has systematically misled the public, bullied Parliament and anyone who dared to speak against them, and wasted tens of millions already on a scheme that officials now admit is unworkable," said Phil Booth from campaign group NO2ID.
The Conservatives called for the scheme to be ditched.
"This ID card project continues to crumble as doubts about its effectiveness, technology and cost pile up," said the party's home affairs spokesman David Davis.
"It is becoming ever clearer, even from the government's own perspective, that they should abandon this expensive plastic poll tax which, far from improving our security, may well make it worse."
Parliament agreed the cards would be introduced from 2008 when citizens applying for or renewing passports would be given an ID card and their biometric details put on a national register.
However under a compromise deal, those applying from passports can opt out of getting an ID card until 2010.
When introduced, it would see Britons issued with ID cards for the first time since they were abolished after World War Two.
ID cards are used in about a dozen European Union countries but are not always compulsory and do not carry as much data as those planned for Britain.
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