Clause 23 - Rules for using information without individual’s consent
Identity Cards Bill
12:15 pm
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Harborough, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 79, in clause 23, page 20, line 32, leave out from “person” to end of line 34.
If parts of the Bill could be described as a dog’s breakfast, clause 23 is the breakfast, lunch and tea. No canine would be dissatisfied when approaching it. As I mentioned, it is completely incomprehensible, but, worse, it will provide the Secretary of State with huge powers to do things that may be in the national interest—we are uncertain that they would be.
In relation to the Secretary of State, the clause uses phrases such as “may provide a person”, “may by regulations” and “may also by regulations”, and those regulations “may include” certain things. It says that the “rank or position” of the high-ranking police officer
“may be specified in the regulations”.
If clause 23 is desperately vague, subsection (3)(c), which I seek to delete, is even vaguer. Subsection (3) says that the regulations “may include” this, that and the other. Subsection (3)(c) refers to
“provision imposing other requirements as to the manner in which such applications must be made.”
It is simply not good enough to legislate on that basis. I ask the Under-Secretary to explain himself.