Identity Cards Bill

I have the second amendment in the group, Amendment No. 218. If the noble Baroness’s amendment is the vaguest of the vague, mine deals with a clause that is the obscurest of the obscure. Quite what to make of it I know not, which is why I have sought its deletion. It occurs to me that the meaning may relate to the amendment which the Government have agreed to accept to Clause 20(1), where the Government have agreed that the Secretary of State cannot, without an individual’s consent, provide information to an individual for the purposes of bringing a prosecution. What is particularly obscure in Clause 23(4)(a) is the section in brackets. Paragraph (a) reads,"““that that person (where not specified in sections 19 to 22) and the applicant for the information (where different) are for the time being approved by the Secretary of State in the prescribed manner””." It would be helpful for the Committee to know what person we are talking about. Given that, as I understand it, Clause 23 is an elucidation and enlargement of the provisions of Clauses 19 to 22 and does not provide new rights of access to information, I do not quite understand how the person in subsection (4)(a) can be described as one not specified in Clauses 19 to 24. I beg to move.