23 May 2008
The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) today announced that all five of the suppliers still left in the procurement race are to form a "Strategic Supplier Group" to deliver the UK's National Identity Scheme [1]. Three shortlisted suppliers – Accenture, BAE Systems and Steria – had already pulled out, citing political and commercial reasons [2].
Privacy and civil liberties campaigners NO2ID [2] called the move “the set-up for a carve-up” and demanded the immediate publication of all documents the government has kept secret, using the excuse that it needed to do so to get "best value" from the market.
Phil Booth, NO2ID's National Coordinator, said:
"Far from the competitive process promised to Parliament, this is the set-up for a carve-up. The IPS is clearly just making it up as it goes along.
"Not enough bidders for a proper competitive process? – why bother? No clear specification, and independent experts saying the fundamentals aren't in place? – who cares? Can't even quantify the benefits? – spend billions anyway!
"Now that the jobs have been parcelled out, to a cosy consortium, perhaps all the financial and technical reviews of the ID scheme could be published so that the taxpayer can see just what sort of pig in a poke he has bought."
-ENDS-
Notes for editors:
1) "ID cards: all five remaining suppliers through to next round", VNU Net, 23/5/08 -
http://www.vnunet.com/computing/news/2217420/id-cards-five-remaining
2) Government insiders suggest the real reason why Accenture pulled out was because IPS "still haven’t decided what it is they really want". See Ideal Government, 22/1/08 -
http://www.idealgovernment.com/index.php/blog/never_too_late_to_get_to_the_right_starting_point/
3) NO2ID is the UK-wide non-partisan campaign against ID cards and the database state, and is affiliated to by the NUJ. See
http://www.no2id.net/dbstate.php
for a list of 'database state' initiatives that NO2ID is actively opposing.
For further information, or for immediate or future interview, please contact
Phil Booth (National Co-ordinator, national.coordinator@no2id.net)on 07974 230 839
Guy Herbert (General Secretary, general.secretary@no2id.net) on 07956 544 308, or
Michael Parker (Press Officer, press.officer@no2id.net) on 07773 376 166.
The NO2ID Campaign
Box 412
19-21 Crawford Street
London W1H 1PJ
enquiries@no2id.net
Tel: 07005 800 651
Press: click here
