Identity Cards Bill
9:25 am
Mr Des Browne (Minister of State (Citizenship, Immigration and Counter-Terrorism), Home Office; Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Labour)
It may well make a change, but I am sure that the Committee would regard it as a welcome change. I have no doubt that arguments will be advanced about timetabling and that a significant number of amendments are justified to probe or explore consequences of different parts of the Bill. Our deliberations might turn out to be repetitious and the number of amendments tabled might not show how often certain issues may need to be debated.
The Bill was published in draft form for consultation in April last year. It was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny, including significant scrutiny by the Home Affairs Committee, which published a report on its views in July. We responded to the report in October and I am pleased to say that we have taken account of many of the Committee's views, which reflect other views expressed during the consultation. The revised version of the Bill has now been introduced to the House. To some degree, the amendment of this legislation has taken place outside the normal legislative process. However, my view is that pre-legislative scrutiny should become a significant part of the legislative process. That would be a welcome development.
For example—this is an issue that we may consider in more detail later this morning—we have clarified the statutory purpose in clause 1 to make it clear that the scheme is, first, to provide individuals with a secure and reliable means of proving their identity. Secondly, it is to enable the identity of UK residents to be ascertained or verified whenever that is necessary or in the public interest.
The Bill received its Second Reading on 20 December and there was broad support for the introduction of identity cards. This is an enabling Bill to set out the framework for the ID card scheme that we propose to introduce, which will start in 2008. Therefore, I remind the Committee that there are practical details of the delivery of the scheme to be determined. Although it is of course legitimate to explore them in this Committee, some will be settled only once the Bill has been enacted and we are able to move to the procurement phase of the scheme.
For example, I might suggest to members of the Committee that they should not expect me to say exactly what an identity card will look like, but then again the legislation that underpins the issue of driving licences in this country does not set out exactly what a driving licence should look like. It is quite common for such legislation to be drafted in that way. Detail of that sort is normally set out in secondary legislation in due course.
However, in Committee and during the further deliberations that we might have in this House, I undertake, to the extent that I am able, to inform hon. Members of our thinking. This being an enabling Bill, I remind hon. Members that some questions will not be able to be answered until we move to the procurement stage.
Finally, the order of consideration of the Bill is straightforward. It includes taking schedule 1 with clause 3, to which it links. We have not sought to introduce knives and in view of the pre-legislative scrutiny that the Bill has received, I believe that an out-date of 27 January is entirely reasonable.