The Government claimed today that it was moving full speed ahead on biometric identity cards and said that most Britons would have one within nine years.

In her first major speech on the controversial ID card scheme, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, also promised to cut £1 billion from the total cost of the project, mainly by allowing private companies to fingerprint and photograph applicants.

But the revised timetable she unveiled - under which the vast majority of Britons would not be asked for biometric information until after 2011 - prompted accusations that the Government was in fact trying to shelve the scheme until after the next election.

Under the Home Office plans, foreign nationals will be required to obtain national identity cards by providing their biometric details from this year.

The scheme will extend to British people working in high-risk areas such as airports and power stations next year. Staff and volunteers at the 2012 London Olympics are also expected to have to sign up for the cards and civil rights campaigners said that other key workers such as teachers and police officers could also be forced to do so.

From 2010, students and young people will be encouraged to provide their details voluntarily. The Government says that having the card would make life easier for them if, for example, they want to open a bank account.

But it would not be until 2011 - months after the latest date for a general election - that British subjects would be routinely added to the National Identity Register while renewing their passports.

They will also be given a choice whether to have a biometric passport, a national identity card or both, as the new passports will be accepted as a form of ID, and the card will be valid in place of a passport for travel inside the EU. Until now, it had been planned that citizens should have both a passport and an ID card.

"The way we are now approaching the scheme will lead to a significantly quicker take-up of its benefits," Ms Smith said.

"One of the strengths of this choice is that now people will be able to get a card when they want, rather than wait until they renew their passport. This means that we can now aim to achieve full roll-out by 2017 - two years ahead of previous plans."

In a speech in central London to the think-tank Demos, the Home Secretary promised she would ensure the ID card project was "hard-headed and cost-effective". She hopes to reduce the cost of the scheme from £5.4 billion to £4.4 billion.

Ms Smith predicted a future in which British people would voluntarily enrol for the cards - which carry their details and fingerprints in a microchip - because doing so would make their lives easier. For example, checks by the Criminal Records Bureau for teachers, some nurses and carers could be trimmed from four weeks to just four days for card-holders.#

Ms Smith said: "It is inconceivable in today’s world that someone should not have a single, safe way of securing and verifying their identity."

She added that rather than having to carry a range of utility bills, passport and other documents to prove one’s identity, there would be huge benefits to possessing a single ID card.

She went on: "If anything, I think it will actually make it easier to retain your privacy."

The project will begin in November with compulsory ID cards for foreign nationals. Within three years all new foreign applicants arriving in the UK will have to have a card.

British workers in sensitive jobs, such as airport staff, will have to have the card from 2009.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, "Yet another re-launch of the ID scheme looks suspiciously like a new sales pitch for the same bad product.

"The message plays on fears of immigration, concerns about airport security and sentimentality about proud 18-year-olds buying their first beer. But foreigners already require passports and visas to come into the country and there is no reason whatsoever why workplace entry details need to be put on a central national database.

Phil Booth of the anti-ID card scheme NO2ID said that the Government's concessions on enforcing the ID card scheme was nothing more than marketing exercise.

"Whether you volunteer or are coerced on to the ID database, there’s no way back," he said. "You’ll be monitored for life. That’s why the Government is targeting students and young people, to get them on before they realise what’s happening."

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