Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I do not intend to give way. I have given way so many times. It is only right that I should make the comments that I have to make. Then I will be more than happy to sit quietly and listen with the utmost care to every pearl of wisdom that drops from the noble Lord’s mouth. In fact, the Identity Cards Bill has a specific prohibition in Clause 18 on any requirement to produce an identity card as the only proof of identity unless specific provision is made in future legislation that an identity card must be produced or it is later made compulsory to hold an identity card. Furthermore, it has been confirmed by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary that anyone who feels strongly enough about the linkage not to want to be issued with an identity card in the initial phase will be free to surrender their existing passport and apply for a new passport before the designating order takes effect. So although, as I indicated last time, we doubt whether many people would want to go to such lengths simply to avoid the opportunity of obtaining an identity card when renewing their passport, that facility is of course available to them. While the attention is on the designation power, I hope your Lordships will concede that the Government have already conceded to the Opposition’s wish for regular reports to be published of the estimated costs of introducing identity cards. We have also conceded that fresh primary legislation must be required before it could be made compulsory to register. We have also accepted the removal from the Bill of provisions in Clauses 6 and 7, which would have enabled compulsory registration to be introduced by secondary legislation using a super-affirmative resolution order procedure with a civil financial penalty for failure to do so. We have already made all those concessions to your Lordships and to the other place and we have never made a secret of the fact that ultimately this is designed to be a universal scheme. A scheme in which anyone could opt out would of course satisfy those who believe that the current provisions are a threat to ancient liberties, but it would also play into the hands of those who want to keep their identity secret for far murkier purposes; perhaps because they are engaged in identity fraud or illegal immigration. Even many of those opposed to identity cards in principle admit that a scheme that is wholly voluntary cannot be effective. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong, for trying to help us resolve this impasse by tabling Motion A1. However, I am afraid that I do not think that Amendments Nos. 22J and 22K will assist us in finding a resolution between the Commons and the Lords on the final shape of the Identity Cards Bill. I know that as a former accounting officer at the Home Office the noble Lord, Lord Armstrong, will understand that we have to avoid introducing uncertainty into the plans for rolling out identity cards linked to passports and any risk that that would increase costs and delay benefits to the taxpayer. Those are important issues. For those reasons the Government cannot accept the amendments. The removal of the automatic link between identity cards and designated documents would mean that it would be much harder to predict the volume of applications for identity cards during the first few years of the scheme. That could lead to less reliable demand during the initial period and so bidders would be likely to introduce a risk premium in their price, which would then mean less value for money for the taxpayer and higher unit costs. It could also mean that the final rollout of the scheme and the move to compulsion would be delayed. That would itself delay the realisation of benefits, including all the wider public interest benefits of identity cards, such as assisting in the prevention and detection of crime and the enforcement of immigration controls. I accept that for some the purpose of the amendments would be simply to cause that delay. We have to question whether that is a proper thing for this House to seek to do. Parliament has spent many hours debating the Bill. Leaving aside the discussions of the draft Bill and the debates on the earlier Bill introduced before the election, the other place spent 39 hours discussing the Bill before passing it on to us in October. The Committee stage there involved 11 sittings over seven days. It has been suggested by some, particularly by Members opposite, that the mandatory link between designated documents and ID cards was not sufficiently debated in the other place. But I can assure your Lordships that amendments almost identical to those tabled in our earlier proceedings by the noble Lord, Lord Phillips, were debated and rejected in Divisions in Commons Committee twice—once on the Bill that fell before the election and once on this Bill—and at Commons Report. We in this House scrutinised the Bill in all its stages for a total of 61 hours, including, as noble Lords will remember with pleasure, six days in Committee and three days on Report. Since then, a further 16 hours of parliamentary time have been taken up as each House considers the other’s amendments and reasons. The principle of a mandatory link between designated documents and ID cards has been debated, voted on and amendments from this House rejected four times by the elected House. I must ask again that your Lordships’ House should accept the will of the elected House. I have to tell your Lordships that I am personally deeply troubled by what we are now doing in this House. Whether we like the contents of a government’s Bill or not, the other place—not we—has the mandate of the people of this country. We are entitled to ask it to think again, as we have done four times. It has given us its answer with very great clarity. We need to think long and hard about the constitutional nature of what we now do. This House has a high and well deserved reputation. I would like to see us keep it. Moved, That the House do not insist on its Amendments Nos. 22G and 22H in lieu to which the Commons have disagreed for their reasons 22GA and 22I.—(Baroness Scotland of Asthal.)