Gov't scales back e-passport upgrade

The Identity and Passport Service has scaled back plans to upgrade its electronic passport system.

Millions had been spent on the Electronic Passport Application (EPA2) project upgrade. The total write-down of EPA2 assets since the project began in 2005 is £10.8m, comprising £5.5m in 2006-07 and £5.3m in 2007-08.

The figures were revealed in the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) Annual Report and Accounts for 2008, which also disclosed that the IPS spent £84.8m on outsourcing services last year.

In the report the IPS explained the decision to drop EPA2 and revert to "more limited" enhancements to the existing ePassport system, saying it was striving for value for money.

The report states: "This decision was reached by IPS after considering many commercial and technical factors."

"In particular, any further investment in EPA2 would have had a limited period in which to deliver the expected benefits, given the current re-tendering of the contract to support operational systems from October 2009," the report continued.

"Any transitional support and maintenance arrangements would have been likely to increase costs to IPS considerably until any new supplier was able to support the electronic channel," stated the report.

The IPS is also responsible for delivering the ID cards scheme, which will be rolled out over the next four years, starting with about 10 million 'critical' workers in 2009, young people in 2010 and the rest of the UK public in 2011-12, when people will have a choice of a passport or ID card.

The annual report also shows some notable successes for the IPS last year, including the detection of 9,000 fraud attempts in 2007-08, up on last year's figures.

IPS chief executive James Hall said in a statement: "We are better placed than ever to build on our successes in the passport service to deliver the National Identity Scheme."