WRITTEN ON January 15th, 2006 BY William Heath AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Another Identity Project report: you have to admire the LSE team’s stamina and tenacity, the clairy and quality of their thinking, and their excellent manners in the face of severe provocation.

Today’s report levels criticism at the government over the secrecy of the ID planning process, conflicting statements made by the Home Office and a disregard for Parliament’s right to consider important costs and facts related to the scheme.

The report recommends that planning for the ID card be removed from the Home Office and given to Treasury.

LSE director Sir Howard Davies gives it a strong introduction:

the Government have not been very forthcoming in providing details of their proposals. The LSE team stands by the cost estimates outlined in its first report, but changes to the policy made by the Home Office make it difficult now to produce a definitive assessment of the total cost. Other government departments, if they wish to adopt the ID scheme, may opt in at a later date. Any estimates made of the cost of the current proposals may therefore significantly underestimate the total cost of the scheme in the longer term

and concludes:

We believe the government’s proposalscan only benefit from informed and independent scrutiny…I hope the government can receive this latest contribution in that spirit and eschew the emotive language with which they responded to the first effort. The authors are not politically biased, or ’mad’ – at least no more so than academic researchers normally are!”

Basically it’s a good read, all 63 pages. It makes all the points that have been bothering us, generally effectively, plus a few more besides.More analysis:

The Register’s John Lettice is worth reading
The Scotsman has been consistently good
ePolitix makes sense
No2IDnews blog always good
…and a DTI official Patrick Cooper suggests giving out free iPods instead

The Home Office web site sems to have moved, and when you click on the Home Office’s ID card web site link to see “who is responsible” it serves up: “Page not found.”