Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards
Identity Cards Bill
10:30 am
Mr Humfrey Malins (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Woking, Conservative)
My hon. Friend makes a very valid point indeed. Anyone who is interested in the principle of good housekeeping must be interested in the issue of costs. Yet when I have looked to those on the Government Benches in this Committee for contributions to the debate, either probing the Government—which is a perfectly proper duty for Labour Back Benchers—or alternatively arguing against the proposition that we make, it has been very disappointing indeed that we have not had any activity in that respect.
There will be a later debate, of course, on other issues relating to the cost, but now might be an appropriate time to flag up the fact that the vagueness of the costs of the commissioner and his staff is a factor that we shall have to consider that has not so far been put into the melting pot of this debate. That is to say, we do not have any idea of those costs.