Identity Cards Bill
10:45 am
Patrick Mercer (Shadow Minister (Homeland Security), (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Newark, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr. Gale, for your clarification. None the less, I am enormously pleased to hear from another Nottinghamshire Member, who of course suffers day to day from the rash of uncontrolled crime in that county, which he may wish to speak about later.
Last time, we had eight sittings in which to debate the Bill. We constantly overran, and the discussion went from good-tempered to bad-tempered at times. The Government chose wrongly to introduce knives into the debate, yet at the end of the proceedings a large part of the Bill remained undebated. Many clauses were not properly considered or scrutinised and we did not do justice to the Bill. This time, the usual channels have kindly and sensibly agreed to extend this set of discussions to 10 sittings, but I wonder whether that will be enough time, given the amount of amendments that have been tabled and the size of the Bill; I hope that it is.
None the less, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hertford and Stortford has already pointed out, this is one of the most serious Bills that has come before the House for many years. It is likely to affect every person on the street and huge amounts of national treasure and taxation. I plead with the Minister to listen carefully and take on board what we have to say in the next few sittings and not, like his predecessor, be so obdurate as to agree to no amendments. We have an interesting time in front of us, but I wonder if there will be enough of it.