Smith will support ID cards in defiance of fierce opposition

Jacqui Smith is to offer a concession to critics of identity cards in the face of concerns over the security and cost of the criticised scheme. The Home Secretary will vow to press ahead with the project, but abandon the requirement for people to be issued with separate ID cards when they renew their passports.

The first cards will be given within months to foreigners living in Britain, although the widespread roll-out to UK nationals is not expected to take place for four years. The Cabinet approved the timetable this week for the project, which will be underpinned by one of the largest public sector computer systems in the world. Ministers stress that the ID register, rather than individual pieces of plastic, is the essential component of the scheme.

Ms Smith will argue the scheme is essential for fighting terrorism and combating identity fraud. She will say the first cards will be introduced by Christmas for non-Europeans resident in Britain following a small pilot scheme to test the technology.

They will then be given to Britons working in sensitive locations, such as airports, from next year. UK nationals will begin to be added to the register in large numbers from 2012 when they renew their passports.

But in a shift of policy they will be given a choice of a combined biometric passport/ID card or two separate cards. The majority are expected to choose the former. The change, which will be ridiculed as a "cardless ID card" scheme, will save about £1bn and is also designed to reduce potential public hostility to the scheme.

Under the government's timetable, the final move to compelling people to be on the register is unlikely until the middle of the next decade – some 12 years after it was first mooted by Tony Blair. Gordon Brown opposed ID cards when they were first championed by Mr Blair, but has since become a convert. One ally said: "He is pretty wedded to it. There won't be a change of course." The Government has been shaken by a series of security fiascos, including the loss by HM Revenue & Customs of two computer discs containing details of 25 million child-benefit claimants. Confidential data on learner drivers, hospital patients and army personnel has also gone missing.

Ministers said yesterday they were convinced of the security of the ID card database and were confident it could handle the vast amounts of information involved. They said the scheme would be presented as an example of a "strong government" taking "tough decisions" which are right for the country when the easy option would be to back down.

Fierce opposition remains to the scheme at Westminster and appears to have intensified since the recent security blunders. But ministers have been heartened by a recent poll showing 61 per cent of people supported the £5.75bn scheme, with just 20 per cent opposing it.

The Conservatives, who have pledged to scrap ID cards if they win the next general election, called for a last-minute rethink.

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: "Serial scandals of loss of data have destroyed peoples' belief in this white elephant, while major commercial companies clearly have no confidence in the project.

"Jacqui Smith should ditch the bluster and own up to the reality that this project is as far away from fruition as it has ever been."

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, said: "The time has come for Jacqui Smith to abandon the expensive, illiberal and unnecessary ID card scheme. Past experience tells us this government can't be trusted with sensitive data or large IT systems."

Phil Booth, the national co-ordinator of No2ID, said: "People simply don't trust the Government to manage their identity. Rather than trying to salami-slice the population into submission, Jacqui Smith should give up on the scheme for good."

Read more at independent.co.uk/todayinpolitics