Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards
Identity Cards Bill
6:00 pm
Patrick Mercer (Shadow Minister (Homeland Security), (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Newark, Conservative)
I shall take what you say to heart, Mr. Gale. If we have a stand part debate, I might expand on the point. I am grateful for your guidance.
I return to the opportunity cost of the card. If we charge for it, what other security measures shall we miss? I shall expand on that later, but the point of tabling the amendment is to find out what the overall cost of the card will be to the individual. We have heard all sorts of estimates. During the last iteration of the Bill, the Government estimated that it would cost somewhere in the region of £100. I shall not labour the point, but the great LSE report ''The Identity Project'' suggested that the cost would be considerably higher. Can the Government tell us what the overall cost of the scheme will be, not only to the individual but to the nation—the cost not only of the card but of the readers and the other technical equipment necessary to make the card work?
The point of the amendment is simple. By saying that the card should be issued free of charge, we are probing the Government and asking them to explain how they intend to allocate the cost. Is it their intention to charge everybody the same price, whatever that may be? I do not wish to make a point about the cost itself—whether it is £100, as the Government first suggested, or whether it will be £300 as suggested by others. [Interruption.] I hear the Minister intervening from a sedentary position. If it is going to be in the region of £100 or slightly less—