The shortlist for the suppliers of the UK’s controversial identity card scheme has been narrowed down to eight firms by the Identity and Passport Service (IPS).

It is understood that Accenture, BAE Systems, CSC, EDS, Fujitsu, IBM, Steria and Thales have qualified to go through to the next round of bidding, for final supplier positions, in a project that could have an expenditure of up to £5bn.

It is estimated that over 50 potential suppliers were initially interested in the government's planned multi-million pound biometric identity card programme.

The first deals expected to be brokered under the framework will be for an upgraded fingerprint system and enrolment processing for both passports and ID cards.

Bill Crothers, IPS commercial director, said: "We have been pleased with the level of interest shown in the National Identity Scheme by the industry and now have a solid core of eight 'prime' bidders' who will go forward to the next stage of the procurement process. Of course involvement in the procurement process is not restricted to just the eight companies we have announced today. Each prime bidder has their own network of sub-contractors representing a wide range of industry talent.”