Verification of Information in Passport Applications Etc. (Specified Persons) Order 2007

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 28 June be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, the purpose of this order is simply to ensure that there is sufficient information available to confirm the identity of passport applicants. The order is being made under Section 38 of the Identity Cards Act 2006, as passports are currently issued under the royal prerogative. Section 38 was included in the Identity Cards Act to establish a power to require information to be provided to verify information in, or in connection with, a passport application. Information may also be required to determine whether to withdraw an individual’s passport. Section 38 already covers all government departments, but this power may be extended to specified non-government bodies by order. The draft order extends the power in Section 38 to two non-government bodies. The first is the Registrar General for England and Wales, who is responsible for the General Register Office for England and Wales, which although a public body is not technically a government department and so is not yet covered by Section 38. The General Register Office already provides details of child deaths to the Identity and Passport Service to prevent passport fraud, in particular to prevent impostors from obtaining passports in the identity of someone who died in childhood—sometimes known as The Day of the Jackal fraud. However, the Identity and Passport Service is now starting to introduce interviews for adult first-time passport applicants and therefore needs to extend the checks made to guard against passport and identity fraud. The inclusion of the Registrar-General in the order will put beyond doubt the ability to obtain information about births, marriages or deaths in order to confirm the identity of a passport applicant. I should add that it is not necessary to add the General Register Office in Northern Ireland, as it is covered already under Section 38(3)(c), which covers ““a Northern Ireland department””. Also, the General Register Office in Scotland was given wide powers in the Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006 to provide information to other public bodies or officeholders and to charge for that service where necessary. It therefore does not need to be included in the order either. The second body covered by the draft order is a credit reference agency with which the Identity and Passport Service currently has a contract for the provision of information. No private sector organisations are currently covered by Section 38, but with the introduction of passport interviews, it is necessary to extend the amount of background information obtained from a credit reference agency in order to verify identity. The Identity and Passport Service currently has a contract with Equifax plc, which is one of the leading credit reference agencies, for the provision of information. The drafting of the order will enable the power to apply to a different credit reference agency if the contract should change in future. The order will provide clarity that the organisations concerned have the legal power to provide the information requested, because Section 38 creates a statutory duty to do so. Section 38 covers the provision of information needed for verifying information provided to the Secretary of State for the purposes of, or in connection with, an application for the issue of a passport. It might therefore include information provided by the credit reference agency about previous addresses at which the applicant has lived recently. The information provided could also include similar details about a third party—for example, the parent of an applicant or the countersignatory to the application, whose name will also be included on the passport application form. The order will ensure that the provision of personal data is lawful under the Data Protection Act. I should stress that the personal information provided must be held in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. It will not cover irrelevant information such as details of an individual’s credit rating or financial circumstances. Rather, it will be information directly related to the customer’s identity or information that might be used to confirm at interview that he or she is the same person. This might include information such as the name of the building society from which an individual holds a mortgage or the bank with which he or she has an account, but, of course, not the size of the mortgage. Once it has been established that the applicant is genuine, any information which has been used simply to confirm identity will be destroyed. Of course, the identity information, such as the applicant’s name, address, date of birth and so on and the application form, will continue to be held by the Identity and Passport Service, just as it has always been. The Information Commissioner’s Office has been consulted about the order. At its helpful suggestion, the scope of the order has been limited to only a credit reference agency with which the Identity and Passport Service currently has a contract. It therefore does not apply to any credit reference agency. The two most important reasons for the order are, first, that it creates transparency for the passport customer as to the sources of information against which their application will be checked; and, secondly, that it will ensure certainty that there is no legal doubt as to the provision of information to assist the Identity and Passport Service with its background checks. I trust that that explanation has clarified the purpose of the order and the reasons for proposing it, but of course I should be happy now to deal with any points or questions that noble Lords might have. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 28 June be approved. 22nd Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Bassam of Brighton.)