Identity Cards Bill

Perhaps I may make a comment on the costs of technology. My first mobile phone—I was one of the first Members of Parliament to buy one—cost me £2,500. I now get one free when I sign a contract which is going to cost me a couple of hundred pounds—if that—a year. A colour television is now the same price in cash terms as it was 20 years ago, and it is a totally different machine from the one which you then bought. That mobile phone had a battery life of about 30 minutes and pulled all my suits out of shape because it was so heavy in my pocket. One of the reasons why inflation throughout the western world is being held down is that new technologies are constantly coming on stream and constantly lowering the cost of providing technological services. They keep inflation down and will continue to do so. Therefore, the cost of providing this scheme, far from being X, Y and Z, will, if anything, be less than the Government are predicting because the new technologies involved in collecting and storing all the evidence and data required will be that much simpler and cheaper.