The most common designated documents are your passport and driving licence. In 2006, the governemnt introduced legislation making it compulsory to register and provide biometrics for the NIR when applying for a passport (biometric passport).
Direct Cost To You:
- The cost of biometrics increases the passport fee from £51 to £77.50 (32-page) £90.50 (48-page) per person¤
- £30 for the ID card (based on Manchester ID card pilot)
- Identity interrogations are compulsory for all applications for new passports
- Until 2010 you are not required to take the identity card (NIC) with the biometric passport
- But, all details required for the ID card will be registered on the NIR when you register for the biometric passport
- Including provisional driving licence, this is a cost of £131 per child for passport, driving licence, and identity card
- Government estimates for the cost of setting up the scheme have increased from £1.3 Billion to £6 Billion
- Experts estimate the cost to be in excess of £30 Billion pounds
- ID card scheme costs will be recovered through the price of the card and income tax
£1000 Fine When you forget to notify the government that you have changed your name or address, you will be fined up to £1000. With 40% of people changing address each year in London alone**, a large number of people will fall foul of this fine (providing significant revenue for the government).
£2500 Fine If you do not register and submit to finger-printing and eye-scanning you will be fined up to £2500. The government has not yet outlined the penalty for people that repeatedly refuse to register; possibly they will receive multiple fines, jail sentences, and be forcibly scanned. With 38-48% of the population opposed to biometric identification, this fine will provide significant revenue for the government.
legal costBetween 2004 and 2006, government*** and national polls found a firm 38-48% of people strongly opposed to identity cards with 31-50% in favour. A large proportion of those in favour were ignorant of both the cost and how the ID card would work. This suggests that disatisfaction within this group will quickly reduce the proportion of the population in favour of biometric identification. Refusal to register for biometric identification will be popular and wide-spread.
The Law Society has questioned who will be paying the cost of pursuing and taking millions of Britons through the civil courts. This cost has not been included in the cost assesment for the scheme. Ultimately, the cost will be paid by the tax-payer. To keep costs down, it is likely that registration will be enforced by employing the same legal process as used for the Poll Tax, e.g. no right to trial by jury, and the government decides what defences are permissible.
hidden costThe government plans to have finger and eye-scanners installed first in banks, post-offices, hospitals, and estate agents.
- The cost of a scanner is in the region of £1,000.
- These will be paid for by increasing the cost of services to customers, for example, in estate agents by adding an extra fee to the cost of selling your home.
- The cost to hospitals could be recovered through council tax or re-allocating the funding from other hospital services.
- Initial government estimates put this cost at £85 million per year. †
- The cost of verifying ID cards in everyday usage is estimated to cost £50 million per year (the same cost of benefit fraud).
- Running the biometric passport scheme will add an extra £415 million to the operation costs of the Identity and Passport Agency (IPS)