Identity Cards Bill

This business of the numbers game worries me, particularly as it took so long for the Minister to reply to a letter that I wrote some time ago. It will be noted that the Department for Work and Pensions has issued guidance to help people to prove their identity for social security purposes, and it lists 22 papers. I suddenly thought that if I really wanted to wreck this Bill, I would have introduced the schedule almost in its exact form. Very few people have the ability to remember more than a seven-figure number. I am not sure, but I think that Sloane 1234 was Harrods’ telephone number in the old days. It also struck me that it might be quite nice for us to know our numbers. If you occasionally want to consult a government department to ask the reference number that you should put in order to prove, for example, a winter fuel allowance, you are asked to type one of two or three or four or five numbers, and it may take half an hour. If all that information is to go on an identity card, which should really be for the benefit of the citizen rather than for the Government, is there a machine that I could get these numbers off? It would be extremely helpful. In addition, will there be a signature? The Government might like to move a little further into biometrics. As secretary of the Parliamentary Space Committee, I can tell the Government that in a very short space of time there will be newer methods of identification. All my life, I have held on to the desired wish that my location should be my Ordnance Survey number—my latitude and longitude. That would be a very short way to solve all the problems. There are complications with postcodes—when a delivery company gets one letter wrong and a bill goes to someone else. All those numbers are a nightmare. May we also have the opportunity of a PIN? If someone asks us to insert our card, in order to make sure that it is not forged, may we have a three-figure number or a combination that we can voluntarily put in? There has to be a change in attitude. At the moment, some people believe that an identity card could be helpful. I believe that. We should have the right to prove our identity. But the boot is on the other foot. The Government are trying to say, ““We have the right to prove your identity””. Here there is a conflict of interest, but, of course, it is not with the noble Baroness.