Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards
Identity Cards Bill
6:00 pm
Alistair Carmichael (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Orkney and Shetland, Liberal Democrat)
I want to speak briefly in support of the amendment. If, through the prescribed document procedure, we move to what, if nothing else, will be a system with a substantial element of compulsion, it seems to me that the element that introduces compulsion—namely, the difference between the identity card and the passport—should be free of charge. It seems to me that there is some slightly lazy thinking on the subject and that, because we charge for passports and driving licences and other documents that might be prescribable at a later date, it might be thought that an element of public money or taxation is not involved. Equally, one might point out that any number of other identity card documents are issued free of charge. For instance, it is now the Government's practice to issue national insurance cards on people's 16th birthday. That was not the practice when I was 16, but I think it is now. National health service cards are issued, and in Northern Ireland cards are issued for electoral registration purposes. There is no charge exigible for any of those cards, and that is quite right, but it rather undermines the Government's apparent assumption that a charge should be made for cards under the Bill.
The crux of one of the amendments is that, where registration is compulsory, the charge should be waived. That is eminently sensible and fair, and if the Government want to introduce the scheme without popular resistance, that is the sort of approach that they must take. The hon. Member for Glasgow, North-West will recall the hay that the Labour party in Scotland made over the introduction of the poll tax. That was because a compulsory charge was levied on the basis of a registration. If we go down the same road with the Bill, I can imagine those who were previously in the Labour party and are now in the Scottish Socialist party rubbing their hands with glee at the opportunity that will be presented to them, when those who are subject to civil penalties for non-compliance discover that a procedure exists that culminates in a warrant sale for non-payment of a civil penalty. The point is essentially one of politics rather than law, but the Minister would do well to heed it.