The Government is looking at using “coercion” tactics as a way of introducing the controversial ID card scheme, a leaked memo suggests.

The Home Office document said that young people could be made to apply for an ID card when they applied for a driving licence.

Gordon Brown has always insisted that ID cards would remain voluntary unless Parliament decided otherwise. But the latest memo – headed Options Analysis – suggests that officials are already thinking about how they can be made compulsory.

It states: “Various forms of coercion, such as designation of the application process for identity documents issued by UK ministers (eg, passports) are an option to stimulate applications in a manageable way.

“There are advantages to designation of documents associated with particular target groups, eg, young people who may be applying for their first driving licence.”

The document adds that “universal compulsion should not be used unless absolutely necessary”.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, branded the apparent plan outrageous. “The Government has seen their ID card proposals stagger from shambles to shambles,” he said. “Now they plan to use coercion in a desperate attempt to bolster a failed policy.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We do not comment on leaked documents.” Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, was criticised yesterday after official figures on prison overcrowding suggested that it cost almost £460 a night to hold a prisoner in a police cell.

Jenny Willott, the Liberal Democrat prisons spokeswoman, said that the bill to the taxpayer was too large. She added: “Rather than spending public money sensibly on our police forces and measures to reduce reoffending, the Government is squandering millions on desperate attempts to find places to house prisoners.”

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