The Home Office has said that the introduction of identity cards will cost more than £5.6bn over the next decade.

In its bi-annual report to Parliament on the costs of the controversial scheme, the government includes both the cost of setting up the scheme and then continuing to maintain and run it.

On the latest figures, total costs are now down on the previous estimate of £5.75bn.

The savings are attributed to a cut in the likely number of passports which will be issued over the next 10 years, and a reduction in the cost of producing passports and identity cards containing fingerprint biometrics.