British ID card in trouble: "MPs attacked plans for identity cards as inconsistent and lacking clarity yesterday and called for a rethink of the technology to be used. The Commons Science and Technology Committee published a report expressing incredulity that the Home Office claimed to be able to produce firm estimates of the costs of running ID cards when fundamental technical decisions were still unclear. The Home Office has said that running costs would be 584 million pounds a year, whereas the London School of Economics, in a controversial report, has put the total costs of setting up and running ID cards at between 10.6 billion and 19.2 billion. The report called on the Government to disclose more information about how the scheme would operate, particularly the database on which personal details would eventually be held. The criticism comes after the admission by the Home Office last month that the introduction of identity cards as a voluntary measure was likely to be delayed past the target date of 2008 because of practical difficulties in implementing a scheme of that size".