Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, given the comments that the noble Lord has just made in relation to the assertions made in the other place by my right honourable friend, it is only right that I should seek to correct what is, I am sure, a totally inadvertent misunderstanding of the position. The noble Lord, Lord Phillips, is right: information could be provided from the register to overseas law enforcement agencies in relation to criminal proceedings and investigations in the circumstances set out in Clause 20. As I am sure noble Lords will remember, that parallels the existing powers in Sections 17 and 18 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001. However, the power is subject to safeguards. The audit trail information in paragraph 9 of Schedule 1 can be provided only for the prevention and detection of serious crime. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary said that other countries and their intelligence services will not have access to the register or to the database; that is not the way the system will operate. That is correct, and perhaps the noble Lord was not totally aware that it was the position. I wanted to give him the opportunity to understand better how the system works.