Identity Cards Bill

The noble Lord is right—as this debate has gone on, he has begun to realise that the gap is small. Because of that, as I said earlier, I am happy for us to consider the wording further, but I cannot accept these amendments. If they were pushed to a vote and passed, frankly, they would greatly damage the way in which the legislation will work. The noble Lord has already conceded that you have to have penalties in a system of this nature. I have tried to describe the reasonable way in which the scheme will work per se. For all of those reasons we cannot agree to any amendments in this group but, as I have made plain, we shall give further thought to the wording. But there needs to be clarity and I worry that the words which are offered in this group of amendments would severely damage some of that clarity.