EDS, CSC, IBM, Fujitsu, and Thales Chosen for Supplying UK ID Cards

IPS has signed framework contracts with EDS, CSC, IBM, Fujitsu, and Thales for the £2 billion project under the National Identity Scheme.

The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has signed framework contracts with five companies—EDS, CSC, IBM, Fujitsu, and Thales—to provide ID cards to UK citizens under the National Identity Scheme, according to which, it will be mandatory for all UK citizens to have an ID card and to have biometrics added to their passports.

These five companies were the only ones left after BAE and Steria pulled back their bids; Bill Crothers, Executive Director, IPS, said that all the five companies were retained for the contract as all of them were qualified to bid and the difference between their scores was considerably small.

According to IPS, though these companies will still need to battle it out for the various contracts on offer, having the framework in place will hasten the procurement process.

Crothers further added that the project will be split into five distinct procurements and the first one will most probably be awarded this summer.

While the five major procurement contracts will go to these five big firms, subcontracting will be a major aspect of this project; all the winning firms had to submit a list of their subcontractors in a set of intensive meetings and approximately 150 subcontractors were assigned to each firm.
Tags: Government, ID Management, ID cards, Information/Data handling, Legal rights/wrongs