Commissioner ruling means more ID card transparency - Clegg

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 9th Jun 2006

Commenting on the Information Commissioner's decision to force the Department for Work and Pensions to release its feasibility study into the ID cards project, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said "This decision will hopefully bring to an end the Government's attempts to cover up details of the ID cards programme.

"With the cost of ID cards likely to run to billions of pounds, the public has the right to know whether they will be value for money.

"It is a measure of the Government's failure to justify ID cards that during the passage of the bill they never once released a full estimate of its costs and impact.

"Hopefully this decision will lead to a belated revelation of the costs and impacts of this massive scheme."