Government to scrap ID cards 'within 100 days'

Theresa May has promised to consign ID cards to history

The government has promised to scrap the ID card scheme in the coming months as part of the Identity Documents Bill announced today by the home secretary.

Theresa May said that, with "swift parliamentary approval", Downing Street will "consign identity cards and the intrusive ID card scheme to history within 100 days".

The government also said that the National Identity Register, which contains the biographic and biometric fingerprint data of ID card holders, will be destroyed.

The Bill will be given priority status, and is expected to be pushed through parliament in the coming months and given royal assent by August.

The move is expected to save £86m in the next four years, and up to £800m in the next 10 years. Cards already issued will become invalid once the Bill is passed, stopping holders from using them as ID documents for travel within the EU.

Leaked documents showed that the government will not issue refunds to people who have already paid £30 to purchase the cards.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg gave his backing to the Bill, saying that the ID scheme had been "wasteful, bureaucratic and intrusive", and promising a number of other privacy reforms in the near future.

"Cancelling the scheme and abolishing the National Identity Register is a major step in dismantling the surveillance state. ID cards are just the tip of the iceberg, and today marks the start of a series of radical reforms to restore British freedoms," he said.