Identity Cards Bill

Like the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, I got excited by my noble friend’s amendment and was disappointed that it did not go quite as far as I had originally hoped. My noble friend has tried to resolve the conundrum that I posed earlier in Committee. I notice that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton, recalls it. It was he who answered my query about whether this body of information could properly be used in some way for research purposes. My noble friend has found the phraseology about information being ““dissociated”” so that there is no breaching of confidentiality. My amendment asked what would happen after 100 years and whether there was a way in which information could be revealed for the purposes of research. I quoted, for example, genealogical research, but there is a wider issue than that. My noble friend Lord Lucas has raised a very important issue. I have to say that when the noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton, gave, as ever, one of his very kindly responses, having led me up the garden path, he dumped me at the end of it. He said, ““What a good idea””, and then, ““Obviously this is something that could perhaps happen in the future””. Then, when I popped up again and asked where the provision was in the Bill, he said, ““Ah, well, there would have to be further primary legislation””. My noble friend has found a way of trying to introduce that permissiveness into the Bill. I hope that he will be encouraged by the Government to look at his drafting so that the provision might apply more widely than just to data in Clause 1(7)(e).