Between the financial years 2003-04 and 2005-06, £41.1 million was spent by the Identity Cards Programme in total.
Of this expenditure, £31.6 million was spent on consulting and contracting services and £180,000 was spent on polling and opinion research.
Since the merger of the Home Office Identity Cards Programme and the UK Passport Service to create the Identity and Passport Service on 1 April 2006, projects to deliver passports including facial images and fingerprints, identity cards and other improvements have been necessarily combined. As much of the technology and operational processes needed to implement identity cards is also required for the implementation of these new passports, this is the most cost-effective way to deliver these initiatives.
Much of the work conducted by Identity and Passport Service cannot be categorised, both financially and operationally, as contributing towards either the introduction of passports with facial images and fingerprints or identity cards alone. The work is accounted for as future development projects which in the 2006-07 financial year amounted to £30.9 million.
The cost of external consultancy and contracted staff allocated to these projects for that year was £21.4 million.
The latest six monthly Identity Cards Scheme Cost Report, published on 8 November 2007, sets out those elements of the cost estimates that relate specifically to passports, those specific to identity cards and those that are common to both. The cost of registering individuals for passports and ID cards is included in common costs because the same technology infrastructure and business processes will be used. In many cases, the same application will result in the issue of both a passport and an ID card.
The latest Cost Report may be found at:
http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/publications-legislative.asp
I would refer the hon. Member to that report.