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Identity Cards Bill

The hon. Member for Birmingham, Selly Oak asked how the costs of the scheme would be paid. One of the options was that it would be on an annual leasing basis, but would that be included as part of the cost of the card? If so, the cost of the card would increase. The right hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras said that, due to the six-monthly reports, the amendment would put chocks under the wheels—the scheme could be stopped—but there are no sanctions in the amendment, so I do not know how that would happen. Reference has been made to many public sector schemes this evening, and we are all familiar with the Child Support Agency on which £400 million was spent, yet three years on, we are still considering what to do about it. Once the capital investment in the technology was made, it was felt that we had to try to make it work. I suspect that will be the case with the ID card scheme. Once the capital investment has been made, and the scheme is up and running and a large number of people have bought the cards, the argument, regardless of the costs, will be, ““Well, we can’t drop it now. People have paid for the cards and we’ve bought the technology, so we’ve got to make it work””. If that means extra costs, that is what will happen. The amendment will not put the chocks under the wheels. All it will do is enable us to observe, on a six-monthly basis, the increase in the costs of the scheme. I do not know whether it will cost £24 billion or £5.8 billion, but from my experience of local government, the Policing Board or central Government, the one thing I know is that IT schemes of that nature never run out at the original cost. The amendment will enable us to watch the costs increasing, but we shall be unable to stop the bandwagon rolling. For that reason, I shall not support it.