Reuters
Thu Oct 13, 2005 7:58 PM BST
LONDON (Reuters) - The cost of Britain's proposed identity card will be 30 pounds for people not wanting a full passport, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said on Thursday.
The hi-tech card containing biometric security data such as fingerprints and iris patterns will be valid as a travel document within the European Union.
The cost of a full biometric passport and ID card will be around 93 pounds and would be issued from 2008 under government plans.
Independent studies have put the cost of the controversial ID card far higher, with the London School of Economics estimating the card would cost at least 170 pounds.
Clarke said the 30 pound cost had been calculated after consultation with the Treasury and other government departments, and had been checked by accountants KPMG.
"No-one who wants to protect their identity need pay more," Clarke said.
"A national ID card will be a robust, secure way to establish that identities are real, not fabricated."
MPs are due to debate the government's Identity Card Bill next Tuesday, which ministers say will help tackle terrorism, crime and immigration abuse.
If the government's plans are accepted, it will be the first time Britons have carried ID cards since they were abolished after World War Two by the government of Winston Churchill.
However, civil rights groups believe the legislation is flawed, will compromise individual privacy and will not achieve its security aims.
At its last reading in June, before the July 7 London bombings, the government's majority was cut in half as a number of its MPs rebelled and voted against the measure.
Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Latvia are the only members of the 25-state European Union who do not have identity cards.
