Clause 5 - Applications relating to entries in Register
Identity Cards Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Humfrey Malins (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Woking, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 32, in clause 5, page 5, line 15, after 'may', insert 'reasonably'.
I am simply proposing to the Committee that the Secretary of State should have a requirement imposed on him that any requirements he makes are reasonable. It is wrong for anyone to suggest that they would be unreasonable. I hope I do not get punished later for saying that I do not think that the Home Secretary of this or any other Government would ask us to do something unreasonable.
There is a strict requirement on an individual under that clause. Under later clauses, failure to attend at a specified place and time for fingerprints and photographs to be taken and recorded is punishable. It is a little wide simply to use the words
''otherwise to provide such information as may be required by the Secretary of State.''
The Secretary of State should have a test of reasonableness imposed on him—a minor matter, but one that I hope the Government will take on board.