The Home office has admitted that it has no idea how much innocent citizens will be charged for being forced to have an Identity Card.
At Lord’s Question’s today, Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland of Asthal was asked to confirm the current estimate of £70 per person (already almost twice the figure that was being talked about a year ago). She refused to do so, saying that the Government would not be able to assess the costs until the compulsory phase begins.
So every single person in the country is effectively being told to write the Government a blank cheque.
The predicted cost has already almost doubled within a year. Given the Government record on IT projects, how much higher will it go?
Cross-posted from The Chestnut Tree Cafe
It may be a red herring. They haven’t decided the nominal fee, and it will be set at whatever (given plenty of exemptions and transitional arrangements) is deemed politically acceptable. Whatever the charge attached to the card, all of the (unknown but large costs) of the system will be borne by the citizen one way or another. If that adds up to only £70 a head a year I’ll be very surprised.