Cost Of Id Cards Soars

**Samurai** · 05-25-2005, 08:16 PM

The estimated cost of buying a new national ID card has risen again to £93.

Home Office documents confirmed the previous best guess of £88 had not included VAT and other extras.

As the Identity Card Bill was re-published after it fell at the end of the last Parliament, the average annual cost to the nation for issuing the controversial cards alongside passports was put at £584 million.

The £93 charge would eventually be imposed on every British adult for their passport and a new "biometric" identity card, carrying details such as fingerprints.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Tony Blair told MPs that identity fraud cost Britain "billions" every year.

He said the Conservative leader Michael Howard had previously backed the introduction of ID cards and urged him to vote for the new plans.

Previously, the Tories have said they would join the Lib Dems in opposing ID cards until the Government had proved "conclusively" that they were needed.

Liberty's Shami Chakrabarti said the bill was "re-hashed" and urged MPs to reject it again because it was not a "rational" policy.

What I'm trying to understand is, why do WE have to pay for it??

Comments?

**Rick Phlegm** · 05-25-2005, 08:18 PM

Millennium Dome mark II

More useless pish that we have to pay for with the projected costs getting higher all the time.

**Samurai** · 05-25-2005, 08:27 PM

Apparently when they were first announced, they were supposed to be "no more than £25"

**DanB** · 05-25-2005, 08:32 PM

If they want us to have them then surely they provide them to us.

I mean surely otherwise its just a sneaky way to buff the coffers?

**vidcc** · 05-25-2005, 08:38 PM

Well if they were handed out "free of charge" you would be paying for them via tax, so one way or the other you would be paying.

I object to the idea of compulsory ID cards for full citizens, I do however feel that for immigration reasons those that enter a country for the purpose of naturalisation should have them at least until they become full citizens.

You should not be forced to carry ID in the country you were born in. Having the ID will not stop crime and can be forged.

The amount of money demanded in this case is unacceptable.

**Busyman** · 05-25-2005, 08:39 PM

Don't you all have driver's licenses?

Can't they work something into that existing id card?

**vidcc** · 05-25-2005, 08:43 PM

Originally Posted by Busyman

Don't you all have driver's licenses?

Can't they work something into that existing id card?

that would be cheaper and almost sensible so....no.

In the UK you don't have to have your driving licence with you if driving. The Police will just issue a "produce" ticket to produce it at a police station of your choice.... so they would need to make it compulsory to carry at all times.... but then those that don't drive would still have to cough up more money.