UK Public Spending on Identity Management set to Surge to £5.2 billion by 2011

A recent article by Kable, called “Whitehall to boost identity spend by £5.2 billion” reports that:

“Spending on IdM is ready to leap by almost 50% next year from £825m to £1.23bn, propelled by major programmes such as the National Identity Card Scheme, e-Borders, the Police National Database and the National Offenders Management Systems. Total IdM spend in the period 2008-2011 will amount to £5.2bn. This follows a prolonged period of strong growth since 2000 when total IdM spend was just £135m, and maintains the trend of central government being the biggest spender
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Behind the growth is the government's well publicised desire to deal with identity fraud, illegal immigration and the threat of terrorism, along with the drive for government bodies to share more information in integrating services. The latter has to include a strong element of IdM to ensure that officials only have access to the information appropriate to their roles. It could, however, run into problems deriving from fears over the development of a "surveillance society", worries over the reliability of databases and biometric technology, the attractions that new systems could provide for fraudsters, and implementation delays.”.

This article says that to obtain a copy of a related Kable’s report, called “Identity management in the UK public sector until 2011” it is necessary to contact Matt Phelan on +44 20 7061 3235 or matthew.phelan@kable.co.uk.