UK Borders Bill
1:30 pm
Guy Herbert: On the same point, it is explicitly part of the plan. If you look at the identity management action plan published by the Home Office at the end of the last parliamentary Session, you will see that the scheme is intended to use the biometric database that is being developed for immigration purposes as part of the national identity register. It is therefore explicitly a stepping-stone in a technological respect. It is also a stepping-stone in a legal respect. The House was promised during the passage of the Identity Cards Bill that there would be no compulsory element to the scheme and that that would be left to future legislation. Many Members and many Members of the public might have thought that that would be a new ID cards Bill to make them compulsory. The legislation shows that it can be salami-sliced. A section of the population is in effect being compelled on to the ID cards register, on the same database, through this legislation.