Clause 20 - Further uses connected with the
Identity Cards Bill
10:00 am
Mr Richard Allan (Shadow Spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, Cabinet Office; Sheffield, Hallam, Liberal Democrat)
The Minister has correctly referred us back to clause 3 and the statutory purposes. However, they include the lower level threshold of the prevention and detection of crime, and the inference might be drawn from that that information in relation to that very broad category of the statutory purpose of the prevention or detection of crime could be held for as long as is possible under the statute of limitations.
I hope that the Minister will be able to give more assurances on that in later stages of our deliberations. We know that discussions of those kinds of issues take place; for example, in the context of the regulation of investigatory powers, there is a debate between the Home Office and law enforcement officers about what is proportionate and necessary. The public will want more clarity than, ''We can't really set any kind of framework at the moment.''