Identity Cards Bill

I do not disagree with that, and shall come to it in a moment. What worried me is that there was almost an assumption creeping into the debate that the whole scheme was bound to fail. That is a wrong assumption and we should not start with that. Of course there is potential for fraud, but there is at present with many other systems. I must say that I am more worried about my bank details being obtained by someone hacking into a system than I would be about my identity details being obtained by someone similarly. If we take the attitude that it is bound to fail, we will never advance or make any progress. There are understandable questions about reliability, but I understand that fingerprints, which are one of the elements in the biometric information, have been used for more than 100 years very successfully in fighting crime. We are adding to fingerprints a number of other pieces of biometric information. My noble friend the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury is understandably concerned about costs. I am also concerned about savings and benefits that may accrue. Everyone has been asking what the costs may be. We should ask the Minister what might be the benefits and take the balance—do some kind of cost benefit analysis. We should also ask what might be the savings, because savings can be made by introducing an identity card.