Identity Cards Bill

moved Amendment No. 53:"Page 3, line 11, leave out subsection (4)." The noble Earl said: In moving Amendment No. 53, I wish to speak also to Amendment No. 144. As I read it, Clause 2(4) means that in the so-called ““voluntary”” phase of the scheme an individual could find his registrable facts being entered on to the register without his consent and against his will. This prompts me to ask the question, why? Perhaps I am being unnecessarily obtuse but I struggle to understand what purpose is served if an individual’s details are to be entered whether or not he has applied to be, or is entitled to be, entered on the register. At the very least one would expect an individual to have a right to know when information about him is being, as it were, manipulated, in this way—the more so because of the gravity of the civil penalties on the face of the Bill. Indeed, if the individual is unaware that his data is being, or has been, entered, what chance does he have of complying with the various requirements to update his information? I should be grateful, therefore, if the Minister could give us specific examples of the circumstances in which it is envisaged that such entries to the register will be made. Having thought about it, it occurred to me that one possible reason for the provision might be to facilitate the merging of data on to the register from already existing government databases. In so far as that may be correct, I am bound to state my firm opposition to such a prospect. Contrary to the protestations of the Government to date it suggests that it is envisaged, if not anticipated, that considerable ““linkage”” will exist between the national identity register and the host of other databases throughout government. Evidently this would be wholly antipathetic to individual privacy rights. Quite apart from that it also undermines the Government’s insistence that a principal reason for the register is to establish a wholly clean information database from scratch and therefore untainted by any of the inaccuracies or anomalies that are prevalent in existing systems. As to Amendment No. 144, as I read it Clause 8(5) enables ID cards to be issued in prescribed cases to individuals who do not qualify for them. Again, I may be being unnecessarily obtuse but I fail to understand the necessity of foisting a card upon someone even though he is not required to be issued with one. Viewed logically, no individual is likely to want to sign up to the onus of regularly updating their details and the rigours of the civil penalty regime unless the obligation so to do is compulsory. So here, too, I would welcome specific examples of the circumstances in which it is envisaged that that will happen. I beg to move.