The Identity Project

The Identity Project has published two reports on the government's identity card proposals. These reports have been widely discussed in the press and parliament and you can download them and link to the press coverage on these pages.

The Identity Project has been organised and sponsored by the LSE Information Systems Group. Two department members, Gus Hosein and Simon Davies, have coordinated the production of the reports and have serviced the advisory committee of 14 LSE professors who guided the report. Dr Edgar Whitley coordinated the international research team of 60 researchers who contributed to the report.

• The Identity Project: an assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill and its implications (PDF) (approx 300 pages)
• Executive summary (PDF)
• Press release: ID Cards - UK's high tech scheme is high risk
• Press comment on the Identity Project report
• LSE response to Home Office criticisms - On Double Counting Costs for an ID System (PDF) - 28 June
• Identity Cards Bill (House of Commons second reading debate) - 28 June
• LSE report on ID cards cost (letter to the Times by Howard Davies, LSE Director, rebutting Home Office criticism) - 2 July
• Simon Davies: In a spin (profile of report coordinator Simon Davies) - Guardian - 5 July
• LSE Team Responds to Home Office’s Criticisms of The Identity Project Report (PDF) - August
• Press release: LSE team responds to Home Office criticisms of The Identity Project report
• Home Office Response to The London School of Economics’ ID Cards Cost Estimates & Alternative Blueprint (PDF)

Advisory committee

• Professor Ian Angell, Convenor of the Information Systems Group, LSE
• Professor Christine Chinkin, Law Department, LSE
• Professor Frank Cowell, Economics Department, LSE
• Professor Keith Dowding, Government Department, LSE
• Professor Patrick Dunleavy, Government Department, LSE
• Professor George Gaskell, Director, Methodology Institute, LSE
• Professor Christopher Greenwood QC, Convenor of the Law Department, LSE
• Professor Christopher Hood, Centre for Analysis of Risk & Regulation, LSE
• Professor Mary Kaldor, Centre for the Study of Global Governance, LSE
• Professor Frank Land, Information Systems Group, LSE
• Professor Robin Mansell, Department of Media & Communications, LSE
• Professor Tim Newburn, Social Policy Department, LSE
• Professor David Piachaud, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE
• Professor Robert Reiner, Law Department, LSE

For more information contact:

• Professor Patrick Dunleavy, Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7178, email: p.dunleavy@lse.ac.uk 
• Dr Gus Hosein, Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 6403, email: i.hosein@lse.ac.uk 
• Professor Ian Angell, Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7638, email: i.angell@lse.ac.uk 
• Jessica Winterstein, LSE Press Office, Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7060, email: j.winterstein@lse.ac.uk

• The Identity Project: an assessment of the UK Identity Cards Bill and its implications (interim report) (PDF) - 21 March 2005
• Press release on the interim report: Current identity card legislation must be abandoned, urges LSE study
• Press cuttings on the interim report

The interim report was launched at 11am on Monday 21 March at a special briefing in the House of Lords.

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