Clause 6 - Power of Secretary of State to require registration
Identity Cards Bill
4:00 pm
Alistair Carmichael (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Orkney and Shetland, Liberal Democrat)
There was bound to be a catch.
There is a great deal to be said for the amendments tabled by the hon. Member for Newark. I say that because, read as a whole, subsection (4) does not allow the authorities any discretion in the imposition of these civil penalties. The expression is ''An individual who'' meets the conditions in paragraph (a) or (b), and
''shall be liable to a civil penalty''.
If the power was permissive and allowed a civil penalty to be imposed, the question of a reasonable excuse would not be quite so pressing, but the Bill does not give that discretion. From a procedural point of view, the question whether the excuse was reasonable would still be thrown back on the person seeking to rely on it, so there would be no particular prejudice in that regard so far as the administrative authorities were concerned.
The obligation seems to be particularly strict. In this morning's sitting, an example was given of some of the problems that can affect my constituency. Travel within my constituency, as well as to and from it, can be problematic. I am frequently booked to fly to one of the outer isles in Orkney or Shetland, only to find that there are no flights that day because of fog, a storm, or whatever the particular season happens to produce. If one turns that on its head, the residents of Fair Isle have no scope if they are told that they must report to the van that happens to be visiting Lerwick on a particular day in order to provide their biometric details. Presumably the fact that Fair Isle is fog-bound, as it frequently is, would be a reasonable excuse, but there is no provision in the Bill, how will they be able to rely on it? What discretion is there?
This is a fairly sensible and minor amendment that could in no way be regarded as wrecking. I hope that the Minister will give it a fair wind.