Immigration (Biometric Registration) (Pilot) Regulations 2008

My Lords, I can be precise and say that that will not be the case. One rule will govern everyone. That is why I mentioned doing this case by case and getting people to a place where they will have their fingerprinting done. The aim is to have a single type of procedure that applies over the whole country to ensure that we have these biometric data. The Box has corrected me on an issue that I got slightly wrong. Everyone will have to come in to check their fingerprints again, even if we have seen them before, as we need to reverify. I said that, if we had their fingerprints, we would be able to work on that, but they will have to come in and have them rechecked and reverified to ensure that identities have not been swapped, as was mentioned earlier. The last assessment on the cost of the scheme was in November 2007 when, at 2007-08 prices, it was assessed to be £182 million from October 2007 to October 2017. This is being updated in the next ID card cost report, which I think comes out in June. The new figures will say what the cost is. I do not know whether there has been much change in that, but that is the rough figure. People involved in the pilot scheme will not have to pay anything. However, the total costs overall were estimated to be about £182 million for that 10-year period. As I said, the updated cost will come out in June this year. As regards the safeguards to protect personal information—this has been raised a number of times in the House—there is no doubt that there have been some terrible slips. However, people are clear about how they should look after data. There are strict guidelines. We have to make absolutely certain that those guidelines are enforced and that people are more aware of them. I am afraid that in this modern day and age there is a need for keeping large amounts of data and centralising them. That enables things to work better and more efficiently and it helps to save costs. One sees it in big firms and corporations, but we all have to get much better at looking after those data, whether they are our own personal data or data on the grand scale. There is no doubt that there are problems. Some of the personal information will be encrypted to make sure that it cannot be got at. There will be legal safeguards regarding how personal information is stored within the UKBA. There are instructions on how to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and there are issues to do with the Human Rights Act. We have looked very closely at this. Staff are already subject to security vetting. Access to the IT databases, including the UKBA database, is set so that staff have it only when they are required to do so to undertake their work. We are making sure that all the right mechanisms are in place. I do not want to underestimate how important this is. One has to keep working at it to get it right because it is absolutely crucial. As I say, I am afraid that in this modern world of ours we need to have these data that enable us to bowl out crime and to pick up people who should not be here and criminals. It is interesting to note that the pilot scheme that we ran for the borders measure enabled us to pick up something in the region of 1,500 criminals, a number of whom were guilty of very serious crimes. We did so by having PNR data, being able to look at them, match them and bowl these things out. I said that the update on the cost would be given in June. I apologise; in fact, an updated cost figure will be given on 8 May. In summary, I hope that I have answered most of the questions. If not, I shall come back to noble Lords. This is an integral part of enabling a successful rollout of identity cards for foreign nationals. The pilot scheme is extremely important because we do not want things happening such as occurred at Terminal 5. It is absolutely essential that we do run-throughs and make sure that we get these things right. It is part of our effort to improve the security of our borders and part of our wider national identity scheme. The pilot will help us to improve the technology and the processes involved when requiring foreign nationals to attend biometric registration. It will speed all that up and will assist with the main rollout from November 2008 when we start, as I say, to issue identity cards as the biometric immigration document issued under the UK Borders Act. We are determined to secure the UK borders. Identity cards for foreign nationals are a crucial step in fighting illegal immigration, in enabling those who are here legally to prove their identity, which helps them, and in preventing those who are here illegally from benefiting from all the privileges that they get from living in this wonderful country of ours. As such, I commend these regulations to the House. On Question, Motion agreed to.