Identity Cards Bill

I have listened very carefully to what the Minister has said. I have nothing so difficult to ask as a question about privatisation. He anticipated the question that I was going to ask, which was about the European requirements. It seemed very clear to me that the European requirements would have to be complied with. The Minister has already indicated that the United Kingdom Passport Service is going ahead with the new arrangements to meet international air traffic requirements and so on. In the letter that the noble Baroness helpfully circulated last weekend, the United Kingdom Passport Service’s current estimates for that first phase were set out, and we have the Government’s estimates of what the new and total package will be. As I understood what the noble Lord said, while the United Kingdom Passport Service has to go ahead with its phase, there has to be a wholly separate tender arrangement for identity cards. If the whole arrangement is to be based, as the Government say it will be, on the operations of the United Kingdom Passport Service, there may be difficulties in having that total separation. May we not be so far down the process that the United Kingdom Passport Service is undertaking that it may be quite difficult to have a wholly separate tender for the ID cards? It may be that there is a simple answer to that, but it is the question that struck me as I listened to the Minister’s response.