Leader: Government should stay soft on ID cards

Second time around the government is taking a much more low key - and believable - approach with its identity cards plan.

Perhaps chastened by its performance in the General Election, the government has repositioned ID cards as a tool to help tackle identity theft and stop the abuse of public services - rather than as a weapon against global terrorism.

The cards will be "first and foremost for the benefit of citizens", says the Home Office, which claims the cards will help reduce the £1.3bn per year lost to identity theft.

At the same time, the cards could cut costs for government by ensuring that people using public services are entitled to do so.

The private sector can benefit as well by using the cards to make sure the individuals they think they are doing business with really are who they claim to be - although they will have to pay for access to the database.

And in case all these advantages don't sway you, 70 per cent of the cost of the system will come from introducing biometric passports which are on the way anyway, so piggybacking ID cards on bio-passports doesn't even cost so much, the government says.

All of this is to be welcomed. The argument for ID cards preventing terrorism was always a weak one, so renewed focus on the everyday benefits of the project is wise.

But it is unclear whether the benefits of the cards will outweigh the costs and disadvantages. Many will see the cards narrowing their individual freedom too much for little visible benefit.

And it remains to be seen whether the benefits outweigh the high cost of the system - nearly £600m per year.

Of course for many the biggest risk is the technology. While the government can point to other implementations of biometrics, there are very few on anywhere near the same scale.

Setting a target of 2008 seems very optimistic for such a cutting edge technology - especially as getting it wrong would be a true disaster.

Leaving aside the broader debate about how ID cards change the relationship between individual and state, creating a stable, trusted identity is something that can hold benefits for the individual, business and the public sector.

This project could be a great chance for the IT industry to play a big role in making the UK a better place to live and work - let's make sure it goes smoothly.