ID card scrapping put £6.5m worth of IT in limbo

An unexpected casualty of the killing off of the national identity card system by the incoming government earlier this year has emerged: There's £6.5 million worth of pre-purchased IT hardware sitting in boxes to support a scheme that will never see the light of day now.

The quirky fact emerged in responses by Home Office Minister of state Damian Green to questions by MPs about the overall investment that had been put into the curtailed programme.

Green told the Commons that "in respect of the Critical Workers Identity Card and Early Interest Scheme" that much kit had been bought in readiness but had now been withdrawn and "securely stored".

Some eyebrows may be raised that in times of national belt-tightening, the government doesn't want to recycle or repurpose all of the equipment, but plans to junk at least some of it: "Assets and IT equipment relating to the National Identity Register require disposal/destruction and the Immigration and Passport Service will ensure that this happens in line with agreed guidelines," he added.

But as IT equipment is generally managed under contract by our IT service providers, "they will manage the re-use or disposal according to central government security policies," he went on.

The Minister concluded by pointing out that his Department has a general policy of "sharing, re-use and commonality of IT capabilities, in order to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve environmental sustainability".