Identity Cards Bill

I confess to being a little surprised by the thrust of some of the proposals. In effect, the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, is saying, ““Don’t make this a civil penalty; make it a criminal penalty””. By virtue of the way in which he puts it, I take it that he would prefer non-compliance to be dealt with by way of a criminal penalty. I want to be absolutely clear that we do not wish to criminalise people who are found to be non-compliant. That is absolutely not our intent. The penalties are not automatic, as Committee Members know. The Secretary of State has an initial discretion and there is a right of objection and appeal, as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mayhew, rightly highlighted. I commend the draft code that we have put forward for the Committee’s attention because it sets out the procedure. The reason that the penalties are civil and the appeal route is through the civil court is that the Government are not seeking to criminalise those who contravene requirements in the Act. In many cases, people will respond to penalty notices by complying with the relevant requirements. In those circumstances, it will be open to the Secretary of State to waive the penalty and that would be the end of the matter. The primary purpose of the penalties is to deter people from contravening the requirements in the Act, not to criminalise them. The main benefits of the civil as opposed to criminal penalties are that the civil penalties are enforced through the civil not the criminal courts. The civil penalty does not result in a criminal conviction or a criminal record—something that greatly troubles a number of people. Enforcement of the penalty is at the Secretary of State’s own discretion. He would have to issue a claim in the county court. If the person belatedly complied with the relevant requirement, it would be open to the Secretary of State to waive the penalty. Non-payment of the penalty could not result in the person going to prison—imprisonment for debt was abolished by the Debtors Act 1869. There are certain exceptions to that principle, but a civil penalty under the Identity Cards Bill would not fall within any of those exceptions.