Identity Cards Bill

I missed the opening exchanges on the previous set of amendments but this set is closely connected with it. I thought that the Minister made some rather telling points on the issue of serious crime. Clearly, after three consecutive days, she is in good form, and I hope that she can maintain her high standards to the very end. But she also made one or two comments that made me think. When she talked about the need for the commissioners of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to be able to take timely and collective action, for a moment I wished that it worked the other way round as well. I submitted my humble tax return in August. Since then, I have repeatedly written and telephoned asking for a simple response on a matter that would enable me to make my final modest tax contribution before the deadline on 31 January, but reply so far there has not come. I shall send the exchange that we have just had to my tax inspector and suggest that he should act as promptly and effectively as the Minister suggests others should do in assisting the commissioners in their task. The noble Baroness said that she was confident that all information was held in confidence, and she cited the record of the Passport Office. But we are not dealing with the same tasks as those of the Passport Office. The information on the register and the information to be made available under these clauses are of a quite different order from those available to the Passport Office. The phrase ““held in confidence”” takes on a new meaning when that confidence extends to an ability to have access to information,"““for other purposes specified by order made by the Secretary of State””," when that extends to information being provided to all government departments in connection with the carrying out of any prescribed functions of the department or of a Minister in charge of it. Subsection (6) states:"““The provision of information to a designated documents authority is authorised by this section where the information is provided for purposes connected with the exercise or performance by the authority of . . . any of its powers or duties by virtue of this Act; or . . . any of its other powers or duties in relation to the issue or modification of designated documents””." Those are extraordinarily wide definitions. They give remarkable scope. In effect, they give scope for all this information to be provided to any government departments to be used in any way they like. I was trying to think why, in my days as Secretary of State for Wales, I might have required this information. But whether or not I would have desired it, I would have been slightly horrified if any of my officials could have had access to it simply by saying that it was necessary for the carrying out of their functions in the department. Nor would I have had quite the confidence of the Minister on the Front Bench that all that information would necessarily remain completely confidential. I think that I am probably right in saying that a designated documents authority includes the National Assembly for Wales. I seem to recall that in the past we had a significant case when confidential information given to the National Assembly for Wales became public. I certainly do not have complete confidence in such confidentiality. If we are to go this far, we must have a very clear explanation of why the whole measure has to be drafted in such wide terms. Surely there should be some constraints. Is it not possible that we are opening up all the access provisions in such a way that there will be no real limitations at all? If the Government think that that is necessary, they have to justify their case rather more eloquently than they have done so far to Parliament. Of course I shall listen, as I always do, most carefully to the noble Baroness. As I usually have to when the arguments are so detailed and persuasive, I shall read them in great detail afterwards before I decide whether to pursue these issues later, like my noble friend. We are entitled to a very full and adequate explanation of why the Bill is drafted so widely.