THE cost of introducing a national identity card scheme could rise to almost £30 billion — almost £500 a card, the government will be warned this month.

A report by the London School of Economics (LSE), details of which have emerged this weekend, says the cost of integrating the scheme’s computers with government databases will add as much as £10 billion to the college’s previous £18 billion estimate.

The LSE revealed its initial figure last May, indicating a production cost of about £300 for each card. The study antagonised Charles Clarke, the home secretary, because the Home Office had previously estimated the scheme would cost only £5.8 billion. Clarke has said the card would cost £93 for each person — up from its original estimate of £77 — and accused the report’s authors of inventing their research.

He said senior LSE academics were “simply mad” and that they had refused to discuss their research with his officials. He dismissed their findings as “total nonsense”.

The new assessment of the scheme, to be published this month, will increase the pressure on Clarke and other ministers to abandon the idea.

It says that almost every government department will be forced to introduce new computer systems to make them compatible with the new ID card software, effectively adding between £5 billion and £10 billion to the bill. The biggest departments affected will be the Home Office, the Department for Work and Pensions and the health and education departments.

If accurate, the new costings will cause concern at the Treasury where Gordon Brown, the chancellor, reportedly has plans to ditch the scheme.

Brown is said to want the costs to be borne by the card-holder and does not want any “leakage” into departmental budgets at a time when he is trying to keep a tight grip on public expenditure. He is understood to have expressed some of his doubts in private talks with Clarke.

The proposed scheme has been hailed by ministers as the answer to terrorism, benefit fraud and ID theft.

It would require every citizen to register personal information on a new national ID database, along with their personal “biometrics”, including the iris pattern in the eye, fingerprints and recognisable facial features.

Their ID card and number would then prove entitlement and allow access to services, rights and benefits. However, there is a growing consensus among many Home Office officials that the scheme is simply too impractical and expensive.

Although the card plan is designed partly to fight terrorism, it will not cover foreign visitors from the EU or asylum seekers. Clarke has already admitted that ID cards would not have stopped the July 7 London bombings.

Extensive technical problems have emerged, with experts saying the facial recognition system does not work properly with bald men or those who are blind or with some other disabilities.

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