£5 billion ID card bill a "colossal waste of money"

2.01.13pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 9th Oct 2006

David Howarth, MP for Cambridge, has described the Government's ID cards project as a "colossal waste of money".

Mr. Howarth's comments follow Government figures released today which predict that the National Identity Card scheme will cost over £5.4 billion to set up and run over the next 10 years.

Mr. Howarth commented:

"The Home Office's own estimate has almost doubled from £3 billion to over £5 billion and other estimates have suggested that it could be far more. The scheme is out of control. The public has no reason to believe that the true costs will not rise far above this £5 billion figure.

David Howarth MP

"The whole scheme is a colossal waste of money which will not help fight crime, benefit fraud or illegal working or any other of the myriad of ills that the Government claims ID cards will cure. ID cards will be an expensive and pointless fiasco."