It would appear that plans have moved on and the e-mails and article are out of date.

The answer to question (a) at the end of the second e-mail in the Sunday Times is very important. Very little appears to be cast in stone beyond “business as usual” plus the ICAO commitments on biometric passports and
e-borders.

The rest is all verbiage about the meaning of enabling legislation: drafted to enable a flexibility that opponents did not want.

We could well now see a staged approach…with a simple chip and pin card issued at the same time as the new passport/driving license and then rolled out to specific groups…A staged approach enables political face to be saved all round, the risks removed and the LSE costings covered in chicken slurry: because the Home Office costs could well come in remarkably close to the orginal estimates and other Deprtments could run their implementations on close to positive
cash flow.

Watch the number of benefits claimants shrink (10% or more is the estimate that Government dares not make) as roll-out announcements are linked to
“citizen-centric validation exercises” for those in most need of more flexible and joined-up public service delivery: e.g mobile registration
units visiting the day care centre, residential home, community centre, registered contact address et al, not just the doctors surgery or police
station or DSS office and parallel “data cleansing exercises” identity the likely “synonyms” among those who cannot be physically contacted.

(name withheld by request; also abridged to preserve anonymity)