Identity Cards Bill

I realise that certain points I wanted to make in relation to Amendment No. 7 can be made equally conveniently under Amendment No. 8. The notion of the convenience of having a national identity card was triggered by the taxi driver story, concerning all the cards that the taxi driver has to carry about. The list was quite normal, but not one of the cards mentioned could be replaced with a national identity card. It has a completely different purpose and would not fulfil any one of the functions of the other cards. For instance, you have to carry a card stating what vehicles you are authorised to drive; in the case of the taxi driver, his taxi. He may also have carried a driving licence. Indeed, it is interesting and instructive to examine the ordinary driving licence. My licence shows my name, my date of birth—it can be used as a proof of age—and two biometrics in the form of a photograph of my face and my signature. Both of those are stored centrally so that if the licence were forged, it could be checked against the central database to confirm what I look like. It has my address on it and gives the police or any other official who wants to see it information about what vehicles I am allowed to drive. The driving licence actually fulfils a few more functions than the proposed national identity card. Noble Lords will be aware, I am sure, that if you do not register a change of address with the DVLA, you will be fined £1,000, just as is being proposed under the new national ID card scheme. At present the failure to register a change of address with the DVLA is a criminal sanction, but apparently those provisions are so ineffective that a driving licence cannot be accepted as a means of proof of address. Why, then, will the proof of address be any more effective on the national identity register? The penalties are similar, but if anything the penalty for not registering a change of address for ID card purposes is lighter because it is a civil penalty. Only your credit rating will be affected if you do not pay the fine, but failure to pay the fine for failing to register a change of address with the DVLA can result in you being locked up. Given that, the driving licence would appear to be a stronger means of authentication. So it comes down to the convenience of how the cards are to be a convenient means of proving certain registrable facts about oneself. I am afraid that I shall return briefly to the requirements for opening a bank account. I have just pointed out that the address on my driving licence must be correct. If it is not, I face a criminal conviction and a £1,000 fine. Therefore why is a driving licence not accepted by the banks? Rules have been set by a European international money laundering committee and interpreted by the FSA. Failure to follow those rules resulted in various banks being fined. In turn those institutions tightened the rules even harder. That is the reason why you now have to produce a utility bill. The national identity card will not change that unless we go back to the international money laundering committee and the FSA, persuade them to change their rules and make them promise not to bring prosecutions against the banks if they no longer ask to see utility bills. I am afraid that the national identity card will not achieve that. So convenience has nothing to do with this card. I am rather glad to see the word ““convenient”” in the Bill because it suggests that we shall have a raft of stuff that will unwind some of the stupid regulations we have at the moment and which make life so inconvenient. That is one of the rules I look forward to seeing unwound as a result of this Bill being enacted. For that reason, I would rather like to keep the word ““convenient””. I turn now to the question of work status. Another purpose of the card is supposed to be that it will provide proof that you are allowed to work. But Schedule 1 shows that only your residential status is kept on the national identity register, not your work status. This means that the Immigration and Nationality Directorate database must be accessed to find out whether someone is allowed to work in this country. Perhaps the register will be used as a front end to access the IND database, but it is easier simply to use a government gateway directly to it. That solves the problem of whether a body has permission to access such information. Employers will probably end up using the government gateway with which they will already be registered. That is their authorisation to access information held on the IND database. It is not in any way a national identity register function. I do not want to make a Second Reading speech, but another card you will carry around will be your local authority entitlement card. That provides you with your travel concessions, your access to the gym and may act as your library card. The national identity card will not check out a library book, does not know whether you have a right to use a certain library, does not know how many books you have out on loan or what the fines are on the books you have not yet returned. All that stuff needs to be kept somewhere. The above is a perfect example to illustrate how the national ID card will not be a convenient method to do all that we think it will do. I shall make a final point about convenience. I hope that it will be convenient for those with impairments of any sort, such as tunnel vision, being of reduced height, being a wheelchair user, being severely dyslexic or even being unable to read certain typographical fonts. As I said at Second Reading, an excellent protocol is being produced at the moment: the SNAPI project. I hope that that will be one of the ““convenient”” things that will be put on to ID cards so that terminals are properly tailored and thus made more convenient for the user who does not find such things easy.