Brooks condemns ID card fiasco

In a debate in the House of Commons last night Brooks Newmark compared the Government's Identity Card proposals to the tax credit fiasco. In a debate in the House of Commons last night Brooks Newmark compared the Government's Identity Card proposals to the tax credit fiasco.

Speaking in the debate Brooks said, "The tax credit fiasco suffered from enormous IT overruns, and when the Government tried to fix them the costs went up even further. I wonder whether the Minister still shares the Home Secretary's confidence that he will not only hit the target of about £540 million, but beat it?" (13 Feb 2006 : 1207)

Brooks has been vocal in his opposition to ID cards since the legislation was introduced to Parliament, both on civil liberties grounds and because of the spiraling costs of the project.

He is currently a member of the Treasury sub-Committee which is examining the failure of the tax-credit system.

After the result of the vote he said, "I believe that these proposals are misjudged and will be a waste of the public's money and, ultimately, a waste of time. The Government has an abysmal record on previous IT projects and this legislation is a disaster waiting to happen.