Identity Cards Bill

We agree that the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, has raised a very interesting point. I do not think that he suggests that his amendment is perfect in form. He simply tabled it to give us an opportunity to have an interesting debate, which we have had. The noble Lord will know that the provision of anonymised biometric data for research purposes is nothing new. We have done that before. For instance, when the police were developing the Ident1 fingerprint system, they used data from the existing National Automated Fingerprint Identification System to test the technology. However, as the noble Lord will know, his amendment would provide no safeguards about who could receive the information without consent, as it does not specify who the information could be supplied to. But we think that there is a way through this. It is foreseeable that the identity cards programme could wish to provide completely anonymised biometric data to research bodies, such as universities or the National Physical Laboratory which has conducted biometric tests for the Home Office in the past. It is only prudent to ensure that our biometric technology remains as secure as possible by keeping up with the latest advances. There is already power under Clause 22 to provide information to public authorities which would allow us to provide anonymised information to our intended research bodies. This information would be subject to the specific safeguards provided by Clause 23. Any regulations relating to the provision of such information would be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. So, in response to the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, and the noble Earl, Lord Northesk, it is important that we do any research in a very safe and secure way. As regards the comments made by the noble Lord, Lord Selsdon, on race, colour, creed, social class and so on, the noble Lord knows that they cannot be recorded in the register. So I am afraid that research ambitions in that regard could not be met by anything contained in the register. But there is other information, and the noble Baroness supported it, which we could probably do, and we could do it safely. I hope that we have found a way through to satisfy the noble Baroness because she made a very good point. We looked at the Bill and I am so pleased that we have been able to do so.