Blunkett has "underestimated" cost of ID cards

The real cost of national ID cards could be double or even triple the £40 claimed by Home Secretary David Blunkett in a leaked cabinet document.

In a letter to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Blunkett said everyone except retired people over 75 years-old, 16 year-olds and those on low incomes will have to pay £40 to buy the cards.

He also reveals the cards will contain biometric data such as a fingerprint or iris scan that will be held on a central government database.

But Ian Brown, director of technology think tank the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR), said independent estimates are nearer the £100 mark.

He told silicon.com: "The government has really underestimated what in will cost when you take into account the infrastructure and card readers. It is a typical government ploy to say it will cost 'x' to get it approved. Then the cost will double or triple, especially with IT projects."

The government is yet to publish the full findings of its public consultation into ID cards but Blunkett says in the document that the exercise showed "strong public support" for the scheme.

Blunkett used the document, which was leaked to The Sunday Times, to pre-empt attacks from civil liberties groups by claiming there will be limits to the amount of personal data stored and who will have access to it.

"The identity card I am proposing would not be used to store large amounts of personal data to which government departments or agencies would have unfettered access," he said. "There will be strict limits on what is held on the card and what information different agencies can access via the card and the central database. Privacy will be protected, as it is in other advanced democracies that have identity cards."

The cards will not be compulsory but people will have to present them at police stations if requested. Comparing the UK to other countries that have ID cards, such as Belgium and Germany, Blunkett accused Britain of being "out of kilter with Europe".

Brown hit back at the suggestion the UK should automatically follow the examples of other countries.

He told silicon.com: "We're out of kilter with many countries on the death penalty but I don't think we should introduce that."

However, a recent study by online research firm YouGov for smart card vendor ACT found 80 per cent of people agreed with the introduction of a national ID card system. Almost half of the 2000 respondents said they would prefer a 'smart' or biometric element to the card.