Identity Cards Bill

This debate has started me thinking about this. Clause 1(5)(g) refers to,"““information about numbers allocated to him for identification purposes and about the documents to which they relate;—””" One of the things that came out of, for instance, the inquiry about Huntley, is that if people had checked with the credit reference agencies they could have found out the truth about things such as addresses. I think I am right about that. It may be easiest to use such things as credit reference agencies for proving addresses and other identification purposes. I do not see any reason against it if you are willing to use that to prove your identity when you first register. Would credit card numbers be kept on the register if someone had chosen to use that information? It may be a perfectly valid thing to do. I just raise that for future debate. I might as well flag this up now. It relates to the immigration issue in Schedule 1. I do not want the Minister to reply to it, it is really for the noble Lords on the Back Benches. Paragraph (4)(1)(i) of the schedule refers to,"““any reference number allocated by the Secretary of State in connection with an application made by him for permission to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom””." You have the ACID number, the Home Office reference number, the port of entry number and the immigration number for starters. I think there are about another four identifiers used internally by IND and, if it concerns children, NASS as well, for trying to track immigrants. The Home Office talks about banks, and it has been said that ID cards will remove the need to produce utility bills when opening an account, so some of this information will be released to organisations such as banks. That is presumably in the public interest, because it is in the interest of the citizen to have this information available. This will not all be internal to the Government, where there is a banking system looking at the information to prove identity. However, some of this stuff should not be released outside government circles and should be used internally by government for the more efficient delivery of public services. I flag that up for debate, I do not want a huge reply now.