Identity Cards Bill

I agree. This is Committee, which is why I thought we would get an agreement on how we would deal with this. I did not want to appear discourteous, or not to be giving people the opportunity to ask whatever they wish. I hope that I can take the general consensus and say that I will remain seated until I feel that there is a flavour in the Committee as to what the issues are, and then seek to reply. I hope that that will help our speedy expedition. I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, that I agree with him. Quite often at the beginning of Bills in Committee we have a plethora of issues, but they settle down after a while and we become more disciplined, if I can put it that way, about dealing with each issue as it arises. I turn to answer the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, and do him the courtesy of giving him an answer, because he has now waited for quite some time. First, regarding implementation of the compulsory nature, we can adopt the super-affirmative resolution procedure. The principle of compulsion is what we deal with in this Bill. As to when that comes in, that will be subject to the super-affirmative procedure. We have indications from the Delegated Powers Committee that this is an appropriate way of dealing with that matter, bearing in mind that we will have the opportunity to debate the principle in this primary legislation. The noble Lord asked about removal from the register. The Bill provides a route to compulsion through designated documents and through an order under Clause 6. A voluntary application to go on the register will lead to an entry being made. The entry will be voluntary and will stay on the register, but there will be no need to keep a card on record or to update the details unless and until it becomes compulsory for that person to register. If a number of years were to go by, it would not be necessary to give updated details in relation to addresses, moves and so forth. That would arise only when compulsion comes in. We will have an opportunity to debate the principle behind the proposals and then an opportunity to discuss whether the super-affirmative procedure is appropriate to introduce compulsion in due course. At that stage, the benefit of the super-affirmative procedure is that Members of the Committee will have not only the opportunity to accept or reject, but a greater opportunity to interrogate the proposal in a way that will make sense.