2004

ID Cards – Home Secretary announces private sector partner - 24 May 2004

Announcement from the UK Government's Home Office

A key stage in the Government’s work to develop a national Identity Cards scheme was reached today, as the Home Secretary announced that PA Consulting Group will be working with the Home Office to develop the scheme.

The Government has chosen the company to work as its development partner on the Identity Cards programme, to help determine the best way of designing and implementing the scheme.

The company will work on the design, feasibility testing, business case and procurement elements of the programme. As the programme proceeds it will be subject to regular Office of Government Commerce Gateway reviews.

Mr Blunkett said:

“The Government’s plan to bring in a national UK Identity Cards scheme will bring enormous benefits to us as individuals and as a society.

“This is an ambitious, long-term project which will be introduced incrementally over a number of years. We are determined to get it right, and bringing in expertise from outside Government at this early stage will help us do that.

“Experience from previous projects has shown that early detailed work on feasibility and testing reduces the risks and increases success. Our work with our development partner is one of the key parts of our programme of work leading to the issuing of the first identity cards from 2007/8.”

The development of the Identity Cards programme will remain at all times in the control of the Home Office.

For more information, please contact: The Home Office Newsdesk on +44 (0)20 7273 4545

Notes to editors

1. Approaches were made to a number of companies who have framework agreements with the Office of Government Commerce to provide management and business consultancy to Government departments.
2. The contract has been let competitively and bids were assessed on a Value for Money basis.
3. There are safeguards to ensure that this contract does not reduce competition for later procurement exercises for the components to build the scheme.
4. Further information on the OGC Gateway Review process is available at http://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?id=377 and on OGC frameworks at www.s-cat.gov.uk.
5. The Government published a consultation paper on Entitlement Cards and Identity Fraud on 3 July 2002. The consultation period ended on 31 January 2003. The public consultation and polling results were published on 11 November 2003 at: http://www.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm60/6020/6020.htm.
6. The Home Secretary set out the Government’s plans for a national identity card scheme in his Statement to Parliament on 11 November (HO press notice 307/2004). The draft Identity Cards Bill was published on 26 April 2004 (HO press notice 159/2004).

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