Clause 4 - Designation of documents for purposes of registration etc.
Identity Cards Bill
11:30 am
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Harborough, Conservative)
Clause 4 deals with the designation of documents for the purposes of registration and other unspecified purposes. Amendments Nos. 206 and 207 would affect subsection (2). At the moment, the clause reads:
''(1) The Secretary of State may by order designate a description of documents for the purposes of this Act.
(2) The only documents that may be the subject of an order designating a description of documents for the purposes of this Act are—
(a) documents that a person has a power or duty to issue by virtue of provision made by or under an enactment; or
(b) documents which a Minister of the Crown or Northern Ireland department is authorised or required to issue otherwise than by virtue of provision so made.''
Subsection (3) deals with the manner in which the orders are to be made.
I wish to register my usual complaint about the powers given to the Secretary of State to make orders that we have not yet seen. I shall bank that argument as one that will recur, which it does with particular force under the clause. What documents under subsection (2) do the Government have in mind? What is their description? What is their category or class? It would be useful to know what the Government are thinking. Short of compulsion, the principal means of creating an incentive to register is through designated documents, so the definition of which documents may be designated needs to be tied down.
At present, the category of documents is so broad or undefined that it could refer to a television licence, a fishing licence or another sort of promissory licence. Which documents will a person have the power or duty to issue by virtue of a provision under an enactment? What Acts will be involved? What earlier provisions define the category of document?
The question that must follow is which parties, be they human beings or institutions of the state, or perhaps not of the state, will have the power or duty to issue the documents? Do the Government intend the statutory order that will come into force at some stage—we know not when—to give power to local authorities, quangos or private organisations to introduce themselves to the identity card system by becoming issuers of documents that will then be designated for the purposes of registration?
It follows that amendment No. 207, which would delete the words
''otherwise than by virtue of provision so made''
under subsection (2)(b), must go if the Committee accepts my arguments about subsection (2)(a). It is one thing to have a Secretary of State designating through an unknown statutory instrument particular documents as coming within the necessary category, but quite another for unknown people or institutions to have that power over unknown documents. I urge the Minister to help me to understand what he is about.