TONY BLAIR’S identity card scheme could make up to £11 billion in “profits” for the government by imposing a range of additional charges on the public, a confidential Home Office memo claims.

The document says that the “unit cost” at today’s prices will be £55 for a card and £90 for a combined card and passport. The fee for non-British citizens is £143.

Card holders will also be charged an extra addition £8 for every time they need to change their details, to record a change in name, marital status or address. Approximately one in ten households move house in a single year, and the Home Office would be able to impose hefty fines for failing to inform it of changes.

According to the leaked document, which emerged after Blair spoke in defence of the scheme, these charges will enable ID cards to raise as much as £1.5 billion a year in revenue for the Treasury.

The latest Home Office report will add to the confusion over the true costs of the scheme. Previously, ministers have said it would cost the taxpayer about £6 billion, but a study last year by the London School of Economics put the price tag at £19 billion.

The leaked paper, by contrast, forecasts that, far from costing the government billions, ID cards will actually make a profit.

Leaked e-mails last month disclosed serious doubts among senior civil servants over the scheme. One mandarin said it could be “canned completely” while another feared it would be delayed “for a generation”.

Blair said that whatever the technical issues, it would be “a major plank of Labour’s manifesto at the next election” and was essential to combat terrorism, benefit fraud and illegal immigration.

Blair’s reference to the next election, widely expected to be in 2009, puzzled commentators who noted his earlier pledge that ID cards would be phased in from 2008.

The move was interpreted as an attempt by Blair to bind Gordon Brown, his likely successor, to the scheme. It is acknowledged in Whitehall that Brown and the Treasury have reservations about the project.

The document, The Identity Scheme: a Summary of the Scheme’s Position and Direction, was compiled by the Home Office’s strategic delivery board. It is a confidential assessment of the “business case” for cards.

It says the scheme will cost about £800m to set up between 2005 and 2010. Annual operating costs will be £360m for the 10 years from 2009 to 2018.

The paper predicts “gross benefits of between £980m and £1.5 billion per annum at full roll-out”.

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