Passport Service Writes Off £11m

The Identity & Passport Service (IPS) has reported that it has written off £10.9m in development costs because of the cancellation of the Electronic Passport Application system (EPA2).
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Since opening its new, multi-million pound network of interview centres; the IPS has carried out almost 100,000 interviews with first-time adult applicants without one being turned down. The centres cost £50m to set up and £30m a year to run with about £12.50 of the £72 passport fee going towards paying for them.

£5bn ID Cards Scheme Does Not Add Up

James Hall, Chief Executive of the Identity & Passport Service (IPS), has stated that IPS cannot justify the £5bn National Identity Scheme (NIS) in financial terms within the business case.
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The government will of course make ID Cards compulsory simply to justify the scheme and recoup the heavy losses. In forcing the public to go onto the identity register and receive a card when applying for a new passport means they would be compulsory for anyone wanting to ever travel abroad. The whole scheme was initially ludicrous when proposed in Labour's (now broken) manifesto commitment of only rolling the scheme out on a voluntary basis. The £5bn would have been better served going towards police, border and security services to fight crime and terrorism.