Identity Cards Bill

I shall add one small point about commercial access to the register. The noble Lord, Lord Bassam, told us that,"““there will be no open access to information held on the register. Private companies will not be able to access or buy national identity register entries. However, it is right to spell it out that only with the consent of the ID card holder will banks or other approved businesses be able to verify identity by checking an ID card against the national identity register””.—[Official Report, 15/11/05; col. 1025.]" The noble Lord, Lord Phillips, earlier referred to this point. That is all fair enough. I merely observe that, as I understand it, the Home Office’s procurement strategy documentation estimates that 265 government departments and agencies and 44,000 private sector organisations will have access to the register. I do not necessarily suggest that there is any inconsistency here, but it is important that we are given the opportunity to understand the scope of commercial access to the register that the Government envisage. Is that the content of the procurement strategy documents?