ID card leader appointed

The Home Office has appointed an Accenture managing partner to head up the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) and oversee the introduction of the national ID cards programme.

James Hall will take up his post as the first chief executive of the newly created IPS on 11 October and will have overall responsibility for the operation and management of the agency, including the ID cards scheme.

Hall has been with Accenture and its previous incarnations since 1976 and was appointed a managing partner for the UK in 1994. From 2000 he spent five years as managing partner with responsibility for technology and systems integration across Accenture, and was most recently responsible for the company's £2bn contracts for the NHS IT programme.

Hall will sit on the Home Office's executive board and will report to permanent secretary Sir David Normington.

Hall joins other ex-Accenture execs to join the civil service ranks, including former UK Government chief information officer Ian Watmore, who now heads up the prime minister's delivery unit.