Identity Cards Bill

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Anelay, for her comments. Although I am not familiar with the detail, I am aware of the discussions on the code relating to the IAN Bill. This Bill does not have to be in place until 2008, so there is plenty of time to reflect on the points that have been made. Regarding the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, it simply will not do to set up a system that does not encourage compliance. We must accept that there will be people who play the role of refuseniks and a penalty scheme is in process to ensure that we get maximum compliance. We would be foolish to have a system that worked in any other way. As to the level of penalty that the court ultimately imposes, we need guidance that makes it clear that the position gets more serious as breaches accumulate. That is a good principle, but I am sure that we can think a little more about how we make it clear to people that non-compliance will not be acceptable.