Identity Cards Bill

I shall speak to Amendment No. 80, which is grouped with Amendments Nos. 55, 167—which stands in my name—and 187. There is little to add to the succinct and effective explanation of the need for this group of amendments just given by the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay. I hope that it will not be contentious for anyone who wants to know the state of play on his or her data register entry to be allowed to know. In case the Government are going to say that people have that right under the Data Protection Act, I do not think that that is enough. This is classically a case where that right should be in the Bill so that any person reading the Act, as it will then be, can know where he or she stands. Amendment No. 80 provides that no fee shall be charged for a copy of an entry unless a person has already had a set of copies within the past year. The amendment allows the Secretary of State to make regulations in relation to that. It also spells out the fact that, in getting a full copy of all past and present entries made in the register, a citizen is also entitled to details of authorisations given under Clause 22. As noble Lords will know, Clause 22 entitles the Secretary of State to give public authorities—which are extremely widely defined—the right to all the information on the register, bar paragraph 9 audit trail data where,"““necessary in the public interest””," which is defined in Clause 1. We expect that early in the life of the legislation the Secretary of State will make general orders entitling public authorities to call up information under Section 22. It will therefore be important for the individual concerned to know how often and to whom details of his or her particulars have been supplied under the authorisation of Section 22.