Whitehall rejects £1.8B digital ID price tag – but won't say what it will cost
- Reference: 1765272609
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/12/09/uk_digital_id_costs/
- Source link:
The OBR, which provides independent analysis of government spending, made the estimate in its Budget analysis documents published at the [1]end of last month .
But on December 3, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's permanent secretary, Emran Mian, told a House of Commons select committee that the cost will depend on the outcome of a consultation that has been pushed back to the new year.
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Mian informed a meeting of the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee that the consultation will cover what a digital identity will contain, how citizens will access it, and what range of uses it will have.
[3]
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"Only once we have consulted will we be really clear on what it is that we have to build and in what order. It is only at that point that we will have a good estimate of what the cost is," he said.
Of the OBR forecast, Mian said: "That figure must have been taken from a very early estimate of the cost. It is not a figure that we recognize in terms of the further work that we have been able to do."
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On October 24, the government said a consultation on digital ID, which it plans to make compulsory for anyone starting a new job by the end of this Parliament, "will [6]launch by the end of the year ."
[7]UK minister ducks cost questions on nationwide digital ID scheme
[8]You can now put your US passport into Apple Wallet for domestic travel
[9]Digital ID is now less about illegal working, more about rummaging through drawers
[10]UK government says digital ID won't be compulsory – honest
However, in a parliamentary written answer responding to a question from Liberal Democrat MP Martin Wrigley on November 11, Cabinet Office junior minister Josh Simons MP said that it would "begin in the new year."
Responding to other written questions from Wrigley, Simons said the government is considering "a digitally enabled physical alternative for those without access to technology," suggesting the government could issue physical ID cards as part of the scheme.
He also said the scheme's data will be held "in secure cloud environments hosted in the United Kingdom."
In response to a written question from independent MP Neil Duncan-Jordan, Simons revealed the government plans to consult on issuing digital IDs to teenagers as young as 13.
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"Extending the national digital credential scheme to include 13 to 16-year-olds could streamline administrative processes involved in employing young people," he said. "Inclusion of this age group could also support children's online safety by supporting age verification for online services in line with the Online Safety Act 2023." ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/28/digital_id_cost/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aTgBRlNhMxPmj56lBUIHdgAAAQc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/24/digital_id_rebrand/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/21/uk_digital_id_costs_uncertain/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/12/apple_passport_wallet/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/24/digital_id_rebrand/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/03/uk_digital_id_clarity/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aTgBRlNhMxPmj56lBUIHdgAAAQc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Exactly.
When we all heard the figure, we laughed and said it would cost much more.
When the government is questioned on the figure, they say "No, no, it won't cost that much."
Cost TBD
Of course they cannot say what it will cost, pre-consultation, but that is not the scary part. The scart part is the required consultation over "what range of uses it will have". This is for something that was just meant to make checking validity for employment easier.
Re: Cost TBD
PAPERS PLEASE
We're in the land of confusion
Basically, the government have no real idea what it will cost. £1.8Bn is a figure plucked out of the air by some Whitehall mandarin and a group of cronies sitting round a table with a pot of Earl Grey and box of Harrods biscuits in a private club.
The cost assumes that the chosen contractor will actually be able to produce a working system, which further assumes that a government committee can properly specify what the ID system needs to do in order to function and design a working interface [unlikely].
The contract will then be given to one of the usual failures [Crapita / ATOS / Serco / Fujitsu / CGI etc] and then there will be a massive shock when the system doesn't work properly, isn't secure and costs 5x the original estimate.
Re: We're in the land of confusion
“when the system doesn't work properly”
To determine this they would first need to define the purpose of the system. So far we just have “we want ID” and that’s not really much of a dream techies can aim at with success criteria.
Obviously we all know the success criteria involves giving billions to their mates and has nothing to do with ID.
Hofstadter's or Parkinson's law?
> rejected the £1.8 billion cost forecast
No matter what number they choose / guess, we all know it will exceed that by an unimaginably high factor.
Then after overspending by an eye-watering amount, and taking considerably longer than anyone could rationally imagine, it will be cancelled when 90% complete.
Definitely a future case study on how not to do a big IT project
About 20 years ago, the Open University ran an excellent course called "Learning from Information System Failures" as part of its postgraduate computing programme. It examined the different ways in which large IT projects often fail. The course material included several case studies, including the infamous Cambridge University CAPSA project and the Home Office's 1999 Passport Office fiasco. If the OU ever brings back this course, I predict that the Digital ID project will be a prime candidate to become a new case study.
Set a budget first
Then ask for bids from contractors to meet the spec. Leave the risk with the private companies. (The whole thing is stupid anyaay.)
won't say what it will cost
Because it's going to be more than £1.8B. Probably double that before cost overruns and delays followed by the inevitable cancellation.