Clause 9 - Renewal of ID cards for those compulsorily registered
Identity Cards Bill
9:45 pm
Tony McNulty (Minister of State (Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality), Home Office; Harrow East, Labour)
For all the feigned outrage of the hon. and learned Member for Harborough, those items, especially the ones that he referred to directly, simply replicate the application process that we dealt with in some detail under clause 5. In that regard, clause 5(5) is exactly the same as clause 9(4) in each of its elements.
The clause is about the renewal of ID cards and one would rather hope that the renewal of the cards would follow the same process as the initial application and issue of the cards.
Unless technology takes off in leaps and bounds, there will not be little photo-me booths up and down the country where people can get their biometric data before they tootle off to the ID card application store and lay that before those who process the cards, as we do with passport photos. The clause is about renewal and it is right and proper that it replicates the situation as it stands.
The hon. and learned Gentleman is a learned gentleman and he knows fine well that the phrase
''otherwise to provide such information as may be required by the Secretary of State''
does not mean everything and anything that the Secretary of State fancies, but rather it means information in the context of the Bill and the processes outlined in it. It meant that in clause 5 and it means it again here. The process for the renewal of an ID card must be the same as that followed when applying. That is all that clause 9 seeks to achieve.
As the clause refers to those who are compulsorily registered, there must be some civil penalty sanction if the renewal is not forthcoming, and that is all that clause 9(5) will provide. I appreciate the fact that the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland is not moving his previous amendment, because we have gone through precisely the civil and criminal arguments. Nothing untoward can be found in subsection (4)(a), (b), (c) or (d) other than the overwhelming fact that if one is against the process, one is against the process; if one is against clause 5, where those words first appeared in the Bill, one will be against them in clause 9. However, we need that coherence and the application and renewal process should be the same.