Identity Cards Bill

moved Amendment No. 73:"Page 4, line 12, leave out subsections (5) to (7)." The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No. 73, I shall speak to a manuscript Amendment No. 80A, which I lodged earlier in the day, having notified the Front Benches, the Clerks and the Chairmen. The amendment to Schedule 1 states:"““Page 40, line 4, at end insert—""‘No information may be recorded in the Register unless it is a registrable fact as defined in section 1’””." That manuscript amendment and Amendment No. 73, which would leave out subsections (5) to (7) of Clause 3 are designed to clarify a crucial aspect of the Bill. The noble Baroness, Lady Scotland of Asthal, said on the first day in Committee that the governing clause in this Bill is Clause 1. She said that there could be nothing in the provisions of Schedule 1—““Information that may be recorded in Register””—that was not within the ambit of Clause 1. It is therefore a pity that Schedule 1 has Section 3 as its section reference, whereas it should more essentially refer to Section 1. My point is a simple one, and I hope the Government will smile upon it because it is in their interests as much as anyone else’s to make abundantly clear that, as I put it here:"““No information may be recorded in the Register unless it is a registrable fact as defined in section 1””." That will put paid to great deal of confusion which might otherwise arise, for example, under Clause 3(5), which allows the Secretary of State to modify by order information for the time being set out in Schedule 1. If the Minister is willing to accept my manuscript amendment, I shall be happy to withdraw my Amendment No. 73, because it will be perfectly redundant. On that basis, I beg to move.