Clause 24 - Appointment of National Identity Scheme Commissioner
Identity Cards Bill
12:30 pm
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Harborough, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 218, in clause 24, page 21, line 14, leave out “The Secretary of State” and insert “Parliament”.
I want to expose the fiction of the Secretary of State and the Executive—the Government—being different from Parliament. It will not take an inordinate length of time to do so. We are keen to give Parliament the power of oversight of the Government. We all know that the Executive sit not just in Parliament, but on it. We are talking about an Executive with a large majority—in historical terms, a majority of 66 over all other parties is large, albeit a good deal smaller than the majorities achieved in 1997 and 2001. That majority effectively means that there is no difference between parliamentary oversight and Government diktat. The amendment is perhaps a desperate attempt by the Opposition to get greater oversight of what the Government do in our name.
Subsection (1) reads:
“The Secretary of State must appoint a Commissioner to be known as the National Identity Scheme Commissioner.”
That is all very well, but I urge the Government to allow Parliament a rather greater say in affairs of state from time to time. I will be interested to hear what they have to say on that.