Clause 37 - Fees in respect of functions
Identity Cards Bill
5:30 pm
Mr Des Browne (Minister of State (Citizenship, Immigration and Counter-Terrorism), Home Office; Kilmarnock and Loudoun, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is right to understand that the clause provides the power that is required to set fees for a wide range of functions associated with the scheme. It is intended that when the scheme is established, overall running costs will be covered by a combination of charges for applications, issue of cards, identity verification services provided by the scheme, and related services, such as accreditation.
The hon. Gentleman concentrated on an issue that we have already debated at some length, but I am reluctant to go into the same detail on that issue as I did previously, because I do not have before me exactly what was said then. I was confident that what I said then was correct; I rest on that and do not wish inadvertently to contradict myself. However, I will say that the clause provides a power to charge, but it is not presently planned to charge for notification where no new card is to be issued, and I do not envisage that that will ever be planned.
The hon. Gentleman postulates a situation in which a card has to be reissued because an address will be on the face of the card. In keeping with current advice, it is not the intention to issue cards with the address printed on them. That is for obvious reasons; people might well not want that information to be on the card, or it might be overlooked in innocent circumstances but used for malign purposes.
Question put and agreed to.
Clause 37 ordered to stand part of the Bill.