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Identity Cards Bill

First, I have already sought to deal with the issue of developmental costs and commercial confidentiality, and why we have difficulties in relation to those matters. Secondly, the cost for the identity card is £584 million. Thirdly, the costs for other government departments will be for those departments. We would not expect Home Office costs for manning immigration controls, for instance, to be paid for from the passport fee, nor should the cost, if any, of checking identity cards be paid for from the identity card fee. So the figures that we are giving are those that we have estimated as the annual cost of issuing identity cards and passports.