The cost of the Government’s planned identity card scheme has soared in the past six months by £840 million to £5.75 billion, official figures published yesterday reveal.

The Home Office estimate also makes it clear that the final figure will be even higher, because it will include the costs to government departments of buying reader machines to verify identities, such as those of GPs registering patients.

Although the Home Office insisted that the cost of the card would remain at £93 per person, the latest increase could mean that the price may eventually rise to more than £100.

Opposition parties accused John Reid, the Home Secretary, of attempting to bury bad news by issuing the estimates on the day when the media was dominated by coverage of Tony Blair’s announcement that he is to resign as Prime Minister.

They also accused the Home Office of breaking the law by publishing its compulsory twice-yearly update on costing more than one month late. The report should have been published by April 9, but it was delayed because of the local government elections.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: “The public will see through this transparent and pathetic attempt to bury bad news.

“It is also no surprise that the Government has had to revise the cost estimate up by so much. The public should brace themselves for more increases every time this estimate is updated.”

Last October’s six-monthly report estimated the cost of issuing combined passport and identity cards to British citizens, and the more than one million Irish citizens resident in Britain, at £4.91 billion over the next ten years.

Yesterday’s report said that the cost had now risen to £5.55 billion because many more staff would be needed to check applications and implement antifraud measures.

“Estimates of the staff necessary to deliver the national identity scheme and associated support functions have been increased to reflect the current view of the effort required,” a spokesman for the Home Office said.

But £5.55 billion will not be the final figure. From next year, the Home Office’s Borders and Immigration Agency will require all foreign nationals to have a biometric ID card when they apply to extend their leave to remain in Britain. The Identity and Passport Service has estimated the cost of implementing this policy at £200 million.

The extra £200 million drives up the new cost estimate to £5.75 billion.

Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the civil rights group Liberty, said: “The soaring costs and declining support for the grand ID card folly are increasingly inescapable. Surely this dangerous and expensive idea must leave No 10 with its author?”

Phil Booth, of the antiidentity card campaign group NO2ID, said: “With each new analysis, the cost of the ID card scheme spirals. In effect, this report says that the total cost to British citizens has gone up by over a billion pounds in six months.”

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