Identity cards for British citizens are to be scrapped within 100 days, the Home Office announced today.

The National Identity Register, the database containing the biographic and biometric fingerprint data of cardholders, is also to be destroyed.

The Identity Documents Bill, part of priority legislation set out in the Queen’s Speech on 25 May, will invalidate the identity card so that it can no longer be used to prove identity or be used as a travel document in Europe. The government aims to have the bill enacted before the parliamentary recess in August in a move that it claimed will save £86m over the next four years. It will also avoid £800m of ongoing costs over the next 10 years that were to be recovered through fees, it said.

Home secretary Theresa May said: ‘This bill is a first step of many that this government is taking to reduce the control of the state over decent, law-abiding people.’

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said: ‘Cancelling the scheme and abolishing the National Identity Register is a major step in dismantling the surveillance state – but ID cards are just the tip of the iceberg.’ Today’s bill was the start of a series of ‘radical reforms’ to restore freedoms, he added.

Other reforms announced include the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, which will make the police service more accountable to the public, and the Freedom (Great Repeal) Bill, which will restore the right to non-violent protest and regulate CCTV use.