Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I should explain that I put my name down rather later than I should have done to speak in this debate because in earlier debates in the House on identity cards I spoke in favour of such projects and I wish to add a few modest words in support of the proposition. I was not intending to address the larger constitutional issues on which we have heard some important and extremely moving speeches, and we will no doubt return to these broad issues at later stages of the Bill. Perhaps your Lordships will forgive me if I make my few rather modest suggestions about the practicalities of the suggested identity cards. Most other countries in the world have identity cards and find them useful. The doubts that I have about the scheme which we are considering at the moment concern points of detail such as the following. I find the scheme too extensive, too ambitious and all-embracing. It would evidently be extremely expensive and it fails, in my view, to meet the desirable objective of providing maximum utility to the citizen at a moderate cost. My preference would be for an identity card that produces real and tangible benefits for the citizen. The present proposal is more ambitious than that and would cover a wide range of activity. It would, for example, enable the police and other public authorities to identify a citizen by name, address and occupation. The scheme that I would favour would help the citizen in various daily transactions such as in ordering an article on credit, paying a telephone bill or on e-mail. Also, most importantly, it would be for use as a travel document, particularly in the European Union where identity cards are accepted in lieu of passports when entering and leaving a member state. That already includes European Union citizens arriving in this country. In my view, we should have reciprocal opportunities in return. It would also help if the authorities who maintain order could be assisted by identifying with certainty the identity of a person whose conduct has caused them concern. It would also be important to limit the opportunity for fraud in commercial transactions, which misuse of the cards might make possible. My little list is by no means exhaustive—public health is another subject that is much on our minds at present. I have no objection to those functions, which are part of the responsibilities of a modern state, but the ambit and coverage foreseen by the Bill is wide and would give rise to much expense. My preference would be for a much simpler document dealing with a narrower range of functions, some of which would be of real benefit to the citizen. In particular, an identity card that could be used when entering or leaving member states of the European Union would be extremely useful. I notice when travelling between Britain and Italy, which I still do quite regularly, the ready acceptance of Italian identity documents by our own immigration authorities. I compare that with the extremely extensive personal information that may be sought from a British citizen travelling to the United States. No doubt that is partly because of 9/11 and the decision of the United States Government that they need much more information about those entering their country than is given by our present passports. Perhaps I am wrong, but I suspect that the United States would like much more information about our citizens going to the United States than is available to them under the present passport and visa system. As someone who travels quite often to the United States, as I have a daughter who is now a US citizen, I am amazed on every occasion by the length of time it takes to study a British passport at a major American airport such as JFK, Dulles or Boston. Also, I notice that a British citizen who arrives in the United States and presents a valid British passport that shows a recent visa issued particularly by Egypt would be subject to close personal examination. Of course, the American authorities have the right to ask such questions, but I see no reason why we should collect personal data on their behalf as part of our ID system. I do not know whether such information would be available to the Americans under the system that we have in mind, but I hope that some careful thought can be given to it. In short, I welcome the idea of a national ID, but the present scheme strikes me as being too elaborate and expensive. Nor should we forget the recent but unfortunate record of Whitehall in dealing with major computer projects, which is hardly a matter that one can think about with confidence when considering how such a scheme could be handled. I hope that the Government will be able to refine their proposal to focus more on some of the essential details, a few of which I have mentioned, to produce a result that is of real utility to the British citizen and not just to the state. As more British citizens travel to the EEC than to the United States, I suggest that the European use of our new system of identity cards should be the main focus of the detail when the design is carried through.