The Government’s national identity card project is now estimated to cost tax payers a further GBP 50m. These projected figures come after the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, announced the government’s plan to issue 200,000 ID cards to Manchester and London City airport personnel without charge.

Government efforts to cap the growing cost of the project are proving ineffective.  Since March, the cost for issuing ID cards to non-nationals has risen by GBP 319m and by GBP 45m for nationals.

According to the Home Secretary, the national ID project is intended to provide ‘a single, secure and convenient way of proving who somebody is.’ The ease at which private information can be disclosed, however, raises concerns over the extent to which the project protects individual privacy. Liberal Democrats criticize the ‘spiraling cost’ of the scheme as not a single card has been issued yet. According to the home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, Chris Huhne, the Government intends to issue the 200,000 ID cards at the two smaller airports is because it is aware of the unpopularity of the scheme and it hopes this tactic may mask the grand scale of the project.

According to the ‘No2ID’ campaign, government attempts to contract the ID card plan to private companies are bound to fail because of the wide unpopularity of the proposal. Lastly, it is anticipated that costs will further surge in coming months.