Prepare for ID card scheme to be scrapped, Tories tell suppliers
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Shadow home secretary warns IBM, CSC, etc that “It will not be our intention to proceed with the work if we are elected.”
Chris Grayling, the Conversative Party’s shadow home secretary, has warned IT companies that have been contracted to supply parts of the controversial ID card scheme that it will be scrapped if they get into power.
“I wanted to make it clear to you that our intention to cancel the project remains unchanged,” Grayling wrote in an open letter to the suppliers. “I think it is important that the companies concerned bear this carefully in mind before committing to any long-term contracts for the project, since it will not be our intention to proceed with the work if we are elected.”
In April 2009, it was revealed that two of the major beneficiaries of the scheme will be IBM, which won a £285 million contract to build the biometric database, and CSC, which signed a £385 million deal to build the IT infrastructure behind the system.
The central contract to provide the actual cards has yet to be awarded. The Home Office said this week that the deal was unlikely to be signed until Autumn 2010.
On 18 June 2009, bookie Paddy Power offered odds of 1/12 on the Conservatives winning the next general election.
