Identity Cards Bill

Postponing these issues will not assist. I say that for the reasons I have already partly outlined. First, we will soon have biometric passports. Secondly, the whole process we are going through cannot be delivered speedily. We are looking at a long-term project. It will be a number of years before we are able to have a compulsory scheme. The noble Lord is right: the biometrics will develop, and our ability to deliver this will be enhanced thereby. Postponing the decision will not make it any easier. We have to plan, which is why we are bringing forward this Bill, having started discussions about it in 2002, as the noble Lord will remember. We have already been discussing the whole issue for about three years. I reassure the noble Lord that we have issues of personal freedom very much in mind, and it is for that reason that I know we will spend considerable time debating this Bill for the next five Committee sittings; indeed, we will also have debates on Report and Third Reading. Your Lordships will know that these issues were tightly debated in the other place too. The Bill has had a lot of scrutiny, and rightly so, and that will continue.