Clause 15 - Power to make public services conditional on identity checks
Identity Cards Bill
2:15 pm
Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point which demonstrates how complicated the process could be. If the card is lost, how does one prove one’s identity? How is that done without going back to the original registration unit? My concern is how, on a daily basis, when an individual wants to use services, that can be done efficiently—how it can be proved instantaneously that an individual is the person named on the card. That is why I should like the Minister to explain whether we will go down that route.
Airports are another great example. Would transport be considered one of the services mentioned in the clause? Would cards be used to prove who one was for internal flights? Will we eventually have readers or some form of scanning systems that read the card to confirm who the person is? Although the clause is trying to allay the public’s fear that we will have to carry these cards all the time, if we get to the point at which one cannot enjoy services without having these cards, an obligation or compulsion to carry the card is being introduced by the back door. My other concern is about where that will lead. The Minister must allay these fears that we will not be able to walk around without these cards.
The Minister has repeatedly said: “Show me in the Bill where it says this, that and the other,” but many of the details are not in the Bill—many are explicitly not included. He tells us that certain provisions will not apply, but tell that to a policeman who in three or four years’ time asks for some form of identification. This is the road we are going down. Everyone will eventually feel obliged to carry their card, even though the law does not specifically say that they have to.