The official in this case being the senior civil servant in charge of the project review, according to emails leaked to the Sunday Times:
From: Foord, David (OGC)
Sent: 08 June 2006 15:17
Subject: RE: Procurement StrategyThis has all the inauspicious signs of a project continuing to be driven by an arbitrary end date rather than reality. The early variant idea introduces huge risk on many levels some of which mature in these procurement options.
How can IPS plan to do anything but extend existing contracts in the absence of an approved business case? The plan on page 8 shows outline business case approval in March 2007 (which incidentally I think is a reasonable target but by no means guaranteed). OJEU is dependent on this (as page 15 plan shows correctly) so Sept 06 is not an option for anything other than supporting business as usual.
Oh there is so much more. Read the whole thing.
Now how does this square with numerous ministerial statements that all was fine and dandy? For instance, Charles Clarke,(Hansard, 18 October 2005, Col.800):
Since the debate on Second Reading, the project has been through a further Office of Government Commerce review on business justification. The review confirmed that the project is ready to proceed to the next phase. An independent assurance panel is now in place to ensure that the work is subject to rigorous, ongoing challenge by experts, as well as major period reviews by the OGC process.
Or Baroness Scotland of Asthal, to the lords (Hansard, 16 Jan 2006, col.459):
The Earl of Northesk: My Lords, perhaps the noble Baroness can satisfy my curiosity. At which traffic light, during the various stages, has the ID card been subject to review, and which traffic light has it been given for each of its stages, and which current stage has it just passed?
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: My Lords, I think it has gone through its first two stages—that is, nought and one—and it has been given a clear bill of health to continue to the next stage. So the gateway review process is well on its way and is within the ambit of where it should be. The noble Earl will know that it is not usual for the gateway process details to be expanded upon or disclosed.
Or the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on 17th January:
Put to the PMOS that the KPMG report on ID cards had recommended a more detailed risk based cost analysis, the PMOS said that the project had already been through a number of processes. It had already been through a further Office of Government Commerce (OGC) review on business justification. The review confirmed that the project was ready to proceed to the next phase. An independent assurance panel was now in place to ensure that the work was subject to rigorous on-going challenge by experts as well as major periodic reviews via the OGC process.
In addition there had been the KPMG independent review. So in terms of oversight and reviews it had certainly been scrutinised. It was also subject to the normal audit procedures of departmental expenditure through the National Audit Office (NAO). What would not be wise, however, would be to reveal what our baseline was in discussions with commercial contractors because that would take away the commercial flexibility needed to get the best value for money. In any other realm of business you would not expect an organisation to reveal what it’s [sic – GH] baseline cost was precisely for that reason.
Rubbish, for reasons I may go into some other time. You might however expect it to have some idea what those costs are.
In the light of the officials’ view on the facts of the matter, in what way are all these Government comments not lying to the press and to parliament?
This was to be Blairs legacy,a Nation in chains,sadly it is not to be,if he really wishes to earn the undying gratitude of the people,he could just fuck off.
I regret to say, Ron, that it is not dead yet. There’s a beam of sunlight, but the vampire’s not going to be cooperative and stand in it.
And since the whole e-Government agenda was to have been hung off it, once it is dead, the national database is likely to be back sometime soon. Perhaps in the guise of a revived Citizen Information Project
Pity, because I have some important business ideas and pleasure projects (such as undisturbed sleep) I’d quite like to pursue before I turn 60.
One often hears, in relation to ID cards, that if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear.
I wonder just how much the government has to hide.
Whitehall fights ID costs demand…
At my blog I note just how much of a Sir Humphrey this David Foord is. He clearly loves the idea of an ID card filled with personal information.
THe ID card plan is not in trouble -things are going entirely normally. It will be implemented late, won’t work and cost more than anyone anticipated. This will mean committees of enquiry, endless discussions about reform and/or replacement and then reform and/or replacement with something equally useless and costly. It all achieves what it is meant to achieve – ever more work and wages for ever more self-important people on the public payroll.
This however,smacks of a statdard civil service briefing against ministers in order to pre-empt any blame.It also looks like a warning shot accross the government bows that the civil service is going to sink this.
Better than that Ron. If you read the whole thing, you’ll see this is directly, and explicitly blaming the PM, not a vague off-the-record briefing.
I find it deeply ironic that Labour came to power partly as a result of the Tories meeting their Waterloo over the poll-tax and are yet still arrogant enough to think we’ll put up with another poll-tax.
Crapita will get the government contract for the computers and fuck it up just as they fuck everything up, the UK populace is not going to pay for this thing to be imposed on it. Practically nobody outside of Whitehall believes this will do a damn thing to combat terrorism, illegal immigration, failed asylum seekers, the international drug trade, global warming or whatever.
Now I appreciate that the Samizdatistas have very strong arguments against this scheme on a libertarian basis which has everything to do with the erosion of rights and nothing to do with the cost but… the cost will be the thing which scuppers this one. Seeing as the individual direct cost is looking at being in the region of 300 quid this is never gtoing to work. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that evey single member of the commentariat can think of a better use for that kinda dosh than a card which is at best completely irrelevant. That’s pretty much enough cash to buy Dell’s baseline laptop!
The ID card is pointless statism writ large. It is (I suspect) more an example fof blinkered incompetence than it is of some kinda creeping Blairite tyranny. They got it into their heads that this would be a good idea and it has built-up a momentum as a result because a lot of folks in Whitehall are earning a nice living on the basis. I think this is a pointless and damaging scheme drawn up by half-wits but it is not tyranny. Blair might be a twat but he’s no Stalin, it takes brains to be a Stalin.
A quick question for anyone who might have been following the “Renew your passport in May” thing that no2id were running…
I was intending on going along with it updating mine (5 years early) and my daughters (already expired) in May. Unfortunately, road-to-hell and all that and it never got done. My question is, has anything changed since May or was that just a date to join in with the protest? If it was just a protest thing then I may go ahead and renew anyway. If, however, the government has started instituting those insane information requirements, I’ll start the naturalization process….
Thanks
Rich
I had missed the link on the no2id page. It’s not too late to renew without all the crap. Now if only the passport office didn’t make it so much more bloody expensive for expats (And it’s hard to think of anyone who can sign the back of the photo for me).
Rich
…a lot of folks in Whitehall are earning a nice living on the basis…
Not just in Whitehall, Nick M. Last time we had a glimpse of ongoing costs, thanks to a parliamentary question, the Identity Cards Programme Team was spending around £63,000 a week on external consultants. But quite how you can do that with nothing happening is of course a matter that cannot be disclosed because of “commercial confidentiality,” it being a Whitehall axiom that to get a market rate you have to have sealed tenders and that they not telling us what our money goes on is necessary to save us money.
Recently got my UK passport renewed at the Tokyo Embassy, to beat the supposed ID Card May deadline. Funny, “When does your present passport expire?” is the question never asked. Must quote you from the part of the form describing photograph: … on your own (no toys, dummies or ther people visible) error copied.
The application form differs I’m told from the one used for UK applicants, presumably less demanding. The co-signatory can present a problem if you assume the requirements are written in stone. Even if you can find a Justice of the Peace, university lecturer or serving police officer in Japan, one that has known you for at least two years can present a problem to those that have been in Japan for less time than that. Fortunately staff will fudge on the required time period and even nationality. So the priest that drank you under the table in the Irish pub the previous night will do just fine.
Takes three visits: Pick up the form, as the website is user hostile. Submit said form duly countersigned, and collect the passport. About £100 for the passport, plus they require new photos and assorted logistics. Passport is a bit light on pages, so suspect they want us frequent travellers to use up the passport in less than the 10-year period. So nice little earner. Called at lunchtime and the staff, both ex-pat and local were busy eating their lunch at the booth windows. The differences being rice balls or sandwiches. Place gets more like third world Asia every day. Reminded me of going into a supermarket in downtown Vientiane, Yangon or Bangkok and the staff are sitting on the floor in the last aisle eating their lemongrass chicken and rice.
Asked about the ID Card but they had no idea what I was alluding to: “If you want an ID Card, go to the Ward Office”. Or alternatively, Khao San Road, Bangkok, where the David Blunkett Driving License is a novelty item. The last page of the passport has a type of microchip covered with plastic. Was told by an ex-pat staffer that this would be read when I passed through Immigration. Vaguely wonder how it would stand up an intense magnetic field, but I guess that was just the anarchist in me. Once I had the passport, couldn’t resist asking said Brit whom I’d go to for surface-to-air missiles in Tipton. Don’t think he’d seen “Road to Guantanamo” though.
Something of a time warp at the Brit Embassy, Tokyo. Nothing much changes. They’ve had that prime piece of real estate since Moses was a boy. The Keystone Kops were still handling security, stiffened up to some extent by real police. I’ve passed on a “heads up” (through unofficial channels) several times but to no avail, so if you read they were victims of an instant-remodelling job, you’ll know they brought it on themselves.
Andrew Milner,
Yup, the Tokyo embassy is definitely one of the nicer pieces of real estate her Majesty has in her possession (or rather not, I believe it’s on a virtually indefinite lease – a tax dodge, I think).
The ID scheme will never happen. It’s just one of those ideas that are so radically bad that reasons just keep popping up why now’s not quite the time.
Frankly, the Conservaties could stop the whole plan right now by a simple declaration that they would not support the project financially when in office. So why don’t they?