Identity Cards Bill

I support this amendment. As the Minister will know, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, of which I am a member, expressed a number of concerns about this Bill and its compatibility with the Human Rights Act. In particular the committee said that,"““the Bill’s provision for the retention of extensive personal information relating to all or large sections of the population may be insufficiently targeted to be justified as proportionate to the statutory aims and may lead to disproportionate interference with Article 8 rights””," which as the Minister will know is the right to privacy. That sentiment applies to all of us, but in particular to children, as the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, made clear. I have little to add to the admirable advocacy of the noble Baronesses, Lady Walmsley, Lady Anelay and Lady Morris, except perhaps to say that I have read with great care the Committee proceedings in the other place on the question of why the Government had fixed the age at 16. After reading it I was far from being any wiser than before I had read it. I am glad to support this amendment.