Clause 1 - The National Identity Register
Identity Cards Bill
4:30 pm
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
No; I am afraid that we are looking through opposite ends of the same telescope. I would argue strongly that national security at its broadest encompasses anything specifically captured by the amendment, and that the broader definition is far more relevant to a definition of the public interest and national security than a narrower definition that specifies terrorism. Terrorism is embraced by the phrase
''in the interests of national security'',
as indeed are an array of other matters that may be above and beyond terrorism, and that might—it is not for me to question unduly the drafting on this matter—not be included were we to include in the Bill
''of assistance to the Secretary of State in the prevention or detection of a terrorist act in the United Kingdom or elsewhere or otherwise in the interests of national security''.
In the politest terms possible, that prelude to
''in the interests of national security''
is dangerously over-specific and superfluous. We prefer the wider, catch-all phrase ''national security''.