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 am grateful to the Minister for being so forthright. Because of earlier debates about how the ID card would work, there was a perception that we could introduce a voluntary scheme now. That was the situation that I have been trying to describe. The Government's intention was to introduce a voluntary scheme, and then to have a later decision, perhaps five years down the track or in 2008, when they would come back to the House and have a super-affirmative procedure to decide on compulsion. I suggest that the structure of the Bill still reflects that situation, although the Minister has now made it absolutely clear that the politics is not as such. The impact of accepting the Bill is to accept compulsory ID cards today.
I have been trying to describe the situation that I saw in the legislation. Certainly a reason for tabling this amendment is to reverse that position to an earlier stage in the political debate, when the suggestion was of genuine voluntarism. I will set out the reasons why the amendment seeks to do that.