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Reports by The Sunday Times newspaper revealed an apparent failure of the UK plans for ID cards resulting from an exchange of emails between David Foord, the ID card project director at the Office of Government Commerce, and Peter Smith, the acting commercial director of the Identity and Passport Service (IPS).

The email sent in June by David Foord suggested ministers would be forced to rethink the plans in order to meet the deadlines of introducing the cards by 2008. Peter Smith replied that his staff were prepared for the possibility that ministers would drop the ID card plan altogether. He also said the Home Office was making sure bigger contracts for projects linked to the ID card scheme were being planned to compensate for the eventual sinking of the ID card plan.

Although it has denied claims that the national identity card programme was in trouble, on 11 July, the Home Office said that the introduction of ID cards would be dependent on the review of Home Office operations by the new Home Secretary, John Reid.

A BBC report quoted Home Office sources as saying that tendering had been postponed indefinitely. A Home Office spokesperson affirmed: "Any suggestion that we have abandoned the introduction of ID cards is wrong. We have always made clear that their introduction would be in stages - an incremental process. That remains the position."

David Blunkett, former Home Secretary, said that the project had always been thought as staged and that it would make sense to issue cards to immigrants and citizens of other EU countries as a first stage.

Prime Minister's Official Spokesperson PMOS) claimed that a "slight re-sequencing" of the plan would address the issue of foreign nationals first. He apparently believes firmly that ID cards are a crucial tool in dealing with migration and other identity issues.

The opinions are that the plan could be scaled down in an attempt to save the face and that a downscaled version would only bring about an earlier collapse of the entire project altogether.

The correspondence between the two civil servants suggested that the Home Office and PM Blair were aware of the difficult situation of the programme and Foord has shown that presently it has no approved business case, and has described the construction and approval of one by March 2007 as "a reasonable target but by no means guaranteed."

Mr. Blair's insistence on having the first ID cards in place by 2008 has triggered an early smaller sized variant, as well as the creation of a TNIR (Temporary National Identity Register) over which both Foord and Smith have serious concerns especially regarding the timing.

Foord does not think TNIR can be procured, tested and run in such a short period of time and he doubts the Government and industry have the necessary resources two organise two overlapping procurements. Smith, in his turn, stated TNIR was not part of the procurements that will allow IPS "business as usual" to continue.

Emails from Whitehall officials in charge of ID cards (8.06.2006)
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2261631,00.html

UK ID card scheme near collapse, as Blair pushes cut-down 'variant' (9.07.2006)
http://www.theregister.com/2006/07/09/st_id_cards_doomed_emails/

Not delayed, not sleeping, dead - UK ID card scheme goes under (12.07.2006)
http://www.theregister.com/2006/07/12/idcards_getting_elbow/

Home Office stands by ID cards (11.07.2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/11/id_card_project_not_troubled/

Does Reid plan to punish businesses mean ID card for immigrants? (17.07.2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/17/reid_migrant_hire_plans/

EDRI-gram : PM supports UK ID Cards Act (24.05.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.10/ukid