Clause 17 - Power to provide for checks on the Register
Identity Cards Bill
5:30 pm
Mr Des Browne (Minister of State (Citizenship, Immigration and Counter-Terrorism), Home Office; Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Labour)
The readers will have to be able to be disabled or, alternatively, the system will need to be able to deny access to any readers that are stolen or reported stolen. The hon. Gentleman is exactly right.
The hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Allan) seeks reassurances, which I will try to give him in short order. If they are not sufficient, he will no doubt let us know. Clause 17 will enable checks to be made of information recorded in the register by people providing public services to verify a person's identity. We have already discussed that in some detail. The clause is necessary to ensure that individuals and public services may use the register to assert identity and entitlement to public services. Specifically, the clause will give the Secretary of State the power to regulate identity checks.
The hon. Gentleman asked whether the clause refers to a Secretary of State as that term is normally meant in legislation or to the Home Secretary. It refers to the former. Secretaries of State are interchangeable in our constitution. The clause refers to any Secretary of State, because any Secretary of State can perform the function of any other Secretary of State. However, the Secretary of State will be performing functions in relation to home affairs, so it is almost certain that the Secretary of State in question will be the Home Secretary.
Clause 17 will give the Secretary of State the power to regulate identity checks, including how applications for provision of information are to be made. He may regulate for an accreditation scheme for user organisations. That answers the hon. Gentleman's fundamental point. The Secretary of State may regulate for the equipment that such organisations use to ensure that it meets the highest standards and the requirements that mean that access to the scheme via stolen machines can be disabled. All those provisions are to safeguard people's information.
In addition, under subsection (5), steps have to be taken to ensure that a member of the public likely to be affected is informed of and consulted on the proposals for the regulations. I do not think that we can make this part of the scheme any more appropriate in terms of access. It will give all the opportunities that the hon. Gentleman seeks to ensure that the data are protected and that the Secretary of State, who has responsibility for protecting that data, regulates access to them so that they are protected.
I trust that the hon. Gentleman is satisfied with that answer and that we can move on from clause 17.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 17 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 18 ordered to stand part of the Bill.