Identity Cards Bill

I shall now make some progress. Public services will use the scheme if there is a net benefit to them. The work that we have undertaken so far shows that there would be a net benefit for many public and private sector organisations. There may be many net benefits to a wide range of organisations and the Government have already published a high-level summary of likely future benefits in the ““Benefits Overview”” paper, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House. It suggests, we believe, conservatively that the quantified financial benefits of the identity cards scheme will range from £650 million to £1.1 billion per year once the scheme is rolled out fully. Our business case is therefore sound and, as I explained, it has been reviewed by the Office of Government Commerce gateway reviews.