Thu Sept 27 1:24 2007

LONDON (Reuters) - The Home Office needs to explain why both an ePassport and identity card are needed despite them holding similar information and costing billions of pounds, a group of MPs said on Wednesday.

Identity cards, which ministers say are needed in the fight against terrorism, illegal immigration and organised crime, are due to be rolled out from 2009 at an expected cost of 5 billion pounds over the next decade.

The second generation of ePassports, which will meet international requirements, are set to be issued from 2009 at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds.

Edward Leigh, chairman of parliament's public accounts committee, said the government must justify the use of both, and at least reduce overlaps.

"Most of us are going to have to have both an ePassport and an identity card," he said.

"The Home Office needs to explain why an ePassport could not serve both purposes. At the very least, the Identity and Passport Service should reduce areas of overlap as the identity card project progresses and make sure that the combined fee for the two documents is minimised."

The second generation of the ePassport will include a person's facial biometrics as well as finger prints, while identity cards, which all UK residents, as well as foreign nationals residing in the country for more than three months, will need, will contain finger prints and chip and PIN information.

Plans for iris recognition have been shelved for the moment.

The combined cost to an individual of an ePassport and identity card is expected to be 93 pounds, though no fee has been set yet.

The current cost of a passport is 72 pounds.

An Identity and Passport Service (IPS) spokesman said in a statement: "By developing common systems and common application processes to support both second biometric passports and ID cards we are ensuring best value for money. Indeed we are procuring a common biometric database for immigration, passport and identity purposes."

He went on to say that an identity card, unlike an ePassport, would allow an individual to confirm his or her identity in a convenient way using chip and PIN technology.

The committee of MPs was also concerned that the manufacturer's warranty for the ePassports was for only two years, even though the passports are valid for 10 years.

But the IPS has said in the past that it is confident the chip will last 10 years and the decision to go for a two-year warranty was purely economic.

If the ePassport stops working, it will be replaced at no cost to the owner, on condition that it has not been mistreated.