Identity Cards Bill

moved Amendment No. 46:"Page 2, line 35, leave out ““individual”” and insert ““United Kingdom citizen””" The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No. 46, I shall also speak to Amendment No. 47. We are back to an issue which is still not clear to me—and that is who the Government actually intend should be included on the register. Can anyone in the world be on it? Is it intended to build up a record of the 25 million visits to this country each year? That might, I confess, have some remote security purpose, but there must be a major risk of information overload. When we go to a country such as Italy and are made under that old 1930s law to hand over our passports in a hotel for our names to be logged officially, I sometimes wonder where that information actually goes. I do wonder where, when we faithfully fill in our landing cards when we fly to another country—including this one—those cards actually go. There must be landfill sites across the world in which millions of these documents are filed, mostly irrecoverably. In the brave new world of biometrics and electronics into which the Government intend to take us, is it the intention that all that information will be registered, and may be registered ultimately on everyone? The alternative is that, as we discussed on Clause 1, this is just a national register and that, as the Government, I believe, faintly absurdly, claim, the cost of hundreds of schools and hospitals is being poured out all for the convenience of British citizens who want to open a building society account. In that case, should not entries in the register be confined to United Kingdom citizens, as this amendment suggests? In particular, when the Minister replies, I should be grateful if she could indicate why, precisely, the register, at least so far as the statutory purpose in Clause 1(3)(a) is concerned—the so-called convenient mutual identification—should not be confined to United Kingdom citizens only. There seems to be no reason whatever why UK citizens should finance a service of convenient identification for people from overseas. The amendment would, I accept, also exclude foreigners residing here or who have resided here in the past. But how are these people going to be found? The tragedy is that we cannot even find the illegal immigrants on the loose in Britain. How will we possibly catch up with those who are touring the country on an extended visit; or journalists from the Washington Post here on station, or over to follow the six months running up to an election campaign; or academics spending a term as a visiting professor at a university? Will the regulations state that when someone has been here for 14 or 28 days—or 90—they must come forward and register? How will it work for foreigners who cannot be dragooned by compulsory volunteering, as our citizens will be if they want the freedom to travel abroad or to drive? They will have their own passports and driving licences, and they cannot be compulsorily volunteered. I am just mystified about how this whole clause will operate. If someone is not a UK citizen but was a student at Essex University in the 1960s, say, can he just turn up at an interrogation centre and say, ““Look, I was resident here 40 years ago. I would like to be on your register so that I can conveniently prove who I am””. If he arrives here not having done so, will he be turned away? How will the Government know he was once here? Exactly what is the target group for registration: United Kingdom citizens or others? The Government must decide, as each would lead to very different conclusions as to how the scheme should be set up. Is it not essential that, before agreeing to go on to Report, we see all—and I mean all—the draft regulations about this clause? When will those be laid before us? The object of Amendment No. 47 is to raise directly the issue of whether the ID card system is intended to be used in the war against terrorism, or is effective against terrorism, when the Government’s current plans put greater demands on UK citizens than on those who may come from states that harbour or foment terrorism. Clause 2 sets out who may be entered on the register and the Secretary of State’s duty to make arrangements to enable these entries to be made. Subsection (1) sets out which individuals must have an entry in the national register. I have therefore amended that subsection to make it clear that entries must be made in respect of all those individuals who are citizens of other countries where there is evidence of proscribed terrorist organisations; evidence of other terrorist activity; support for such activity; or support for a proscribed terrorist organisation that the Secretary of State has decided is a threat to the UK. The entry would be required to be made if that person arrived in the UK, or was already here, and sought to remain, not having entitlement to stay here. I beg to move.