Clause 3 - Information recorded in Register
Identity Cards Bill
4:15 pm
Ben Wallace (Lancaster and Wyre, Conservative)
Government agencies will have access to paragraph 9 information and be defined by the Home Secretary. I concede that the Bill does not use the word “browse”, but it does not matter whether it says “browse” or not. What matters is that the Home Secretary will decide who has access, with or without an identity card being presented. That is the difference.
If one looks at the explanatory notes, one sees that the Government say that this is supposed to be about a person presenting their ID card and verifying that they are who they say they are. However, paragraph 9 information involves the Secretary of State being able to decide that an agency of the Government can have access to that database. The individual with their ID card does not have to turn up, if the Secretary of State so decides. That is the difference. We have gone from verification to something more. That is important, and that is why we seek to remove paragraph 9.