Skip to main content

National Identity Register

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his plans to offset the costs of the National Identity Register with fee revenue include (a) fees for biometric immigration documents, (b) fees for applications for an identity card, (c) accreditation fees paid by organisations wishing to verify identities via the National Identity Register and (d) fees paid by accredited organisations to verify individual identities. (122022)

It is intended that the cost of the National Identity Scheme, which includes the National Identity Register, will be primarily funded by fee revenue from the products and services that arise from the scheme, such as those from the applications to be entered in the register when obtaining a designated document, those from the issue of identity cards or those from the provision of identity checking services.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has made an initial estimate of the charges that will be made to organisations accredited for the national identity register for (a) accreditation and (b) individual identity checks. (122024)

A schedule of fees for the national identity scheme cannot be finalised until contracts with suppliers connected to the operation of the scheme are signed. However, secondary legislation must be brought before Parliament to determine a schedule of fees in advance of the launch of the national identity scheme.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the likely annual number of identity checks that will be carried out for accredited organisations (a) once the National Identity Register is operational and (b) once entry onto the National Identity Register is compulsory. (122025)

Until further detailed work with potential user organisations during the preparation and initial rollout of the National Identity Card Scheme are complete, it is not possible to provide a total number of likely verification transactions that will be used by public and private sector organisations in the first years of the scheme.