Clause 5 - Applications relating to entries in Register
Identity Cards Bill
10:00 am
Mr Richard Allan (Shadow Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, Cabinet Office; Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendment No. 164, in clause 5, page 4, line 35, leave out 'must' and insert
'may, if the applicant so chooses,'.
The Minister was correct to say that the debate on the previous clause was a preface to this debate. In clause 5, we explore the mechanism for how the designated document procedure will work. The amendment seeks to break the link between the designated document and the ID card as a form of compulsion. It says that the only circumstances under which an ID card would be issued, or someone would be entered on the register when applying for the designated document, would be if the applicant chose it. It reverses the presumption, so that the applicant has to request the ID card rather than the Government being able to insist that they take it. I am grateful to the Minister for the clarity of his remarks on the previous clause about compulsion.
It seems to us, however, that the field of play has shifted as we have gone through the ID cards debate, and it has sometimes been difficult to keep up with where we are. My fear is that the legislation still reflects a previous stage of the political debate. The Minister has just accepted that the designated document procedure will now be subject to slightly more robust parliamentary procedure. As originally drafted, it was very weak in terms of scrutiny. All the scrutiny is piled up in clause 6, where we have the super-affirmative, gold-plated procedure. However, we understand from the last debate that the provision in clause 6, which deals with requiring the last 20 per cent. to get ID cards, is not the important one. By the time we get to that debate, we will have discussed compulsion. We are doing compulsion now—on this amendment and these clauses—and we will not be doing compulsion in the sense of clause 6. The decision, in principle, is being taken now.