Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, this has been a most interesting debate. I am delighted that I gave way to my noble friend Lord Tunnicliffe because he has outlined an argument that is powerful indeed. Much of the debate has, if I may respectfully say so, been predicated on a false premise. My noble friend is absolutely right; the criteria that will apply to the new biometric passports are very similar to the requirements that will apply to the ID card. I say that because it is very important for us to hold that at the forefront of our minds. When we debated this issue last, it was pointed out that passports are not, of course, voluntary in the sense that you can have one whenever you want and with whatever information on it that you provide, and it was suggested that it was therefore nonsense to say that someone could pick or choose this first stage. We need to be clear that there are at the moment regulations and requirements governing the sort of information that one is obliged to give if one wishes to receive the benefit of a passport. It may therefore be right at this stage, just so that we consider the practicalities of it, to remind the House where the differences are. One must provide one’s name, one’s date and place of birth and one’s address for both the national identity register and the UK database. The address held on the UK passport database is the one that is given on the application form. It is not suggested that the names and address of one’s parents and their dates of birth should be provided on the proposed national identity register. At present, however, we do have to give that information if we want a passport. Under the proposed national identity register, there will be a unique personal number. There is no such unique personal number, but the passport is a document which has a number attached to it. For ID cards, we will have to provide our national insurance number, which we do not currently give for the passport. If one looks at the remaining provisions—name and details of a countersignatory, validation information, sex, photograph, digitalised signature, validity dates, employment status, et cetera—the only difference is that employment status will be provided in the proposed national identity register, and not provided in the UK database. So my noble friend Lord Tunnicliffe—perhaps I may finish this sentence—is right to say that the UK Passport Service will be obliged to keep that information on a database.