Clause 5 - Applications relating to entries in Register
Identity Cards Bill
12:45 pm
Andy Burnham (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leigh, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman has to understand that we propose a highly secure enrolment process to ensure that people applying for documents such as passports or identity cards are who they say they are and that they are the holder of a unique biometric. People talk about the complications that will be caused by the Bill, but the material difference, bearing in mind that large databases already exist, is that the Bill links the personal data held on the system and the biometric. We believe that the creation of that linkage between the data—facts and figures such as an address and a date of birth—and the personal biometric will provide the high standard of identity verification that will bring many benefits.
The hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre said that the technology is in its infancy, but I refute that. The FBI automatic fingerprint identification system has some 47 million fingerprint records. Hon. Members will know that, as a matter of course, the US immigration authorities take biometric fingerprint scans of people entering the country. That is a huge database. The US Department of Defence has a biometric database of about 22 million records. Those systems are already in use, and we think it right and prudent to take advantage of them.
The hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland questioned the phrase ''other biometric information'', as did my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud. A clear explanation of the terminology used in the Bill can be found in clause 43. Biometric information is defined as
''data about . . . external characteristics, including, in particular, the features of an iris or any other part of the eye''.
Our intention is to have flexibility, so that a range of external biometrics can be used.
It being One o'clock, The Chairman adjourned the Committee without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.
Adjourned till this day at Four o'clock.