Results 1-20 of 27 for id cards speaker:Humfrey Malins

Identity Cards Bill: New Clause 4 — Application of Freedom of Information Act (10 Feb 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...it on grounds of national security. I can catch this point under any of these little subsections." Frankly, I am not happy about that. New clause 4 offers a different way to proceed that would avoid the House getting a watered-down report. As a general proposition, it is impossible to review the Secretary of State's actions independently and properly if the commissioner's reports to...

Identity Cards Bill: New Clause 1 — National Identification Scheme (10 Feb 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...seeking to place restrictions on these measures, in this brief debate. The purpose of clause 1 ought to be to establish the real purpose of the scheme. The Information Commissioner himself has said: "The lack of a clearly defined purpose for ID cards, including the continuing change in focus causes concern". Having heard different arguments over the past two or three years about what the...

Young People (Custody) (9 Feb 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...been illustrated already: there are vast numbers of young people in custody. A couple of months ago there were more than 10,000 under 21-year-olds in prison in England and Wales and, as has been said, 2,500 under 18-year-olds in custody. The striking thing is that certain features are common to an extremely high percentage of the under 18-year-olds. A huge percentage have low literacy and...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 45 - Short title, repeals, commencement, (27 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...entertain the Committee for quite a long time on this amendment but I will not. I ask the Minister for a brief response to a brief introduction. The Bill is about the database, rather than the card. The whole public discussion over the last year or two has centred on ID cards and excluded the database. As the debates have progressed it has become clear that the purpose of the Bill and...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 29 - Unauthorised disclosure of information (27 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: We have moved to an important clause, which makes whistleblowing an offence. It will be a criminal offence to disclose confidential information without lawful authority to others, such as journalists or loyal members of Her Majesty's Opposition, and information learnt during the course of employment by individuals who have responsibility for ''the establishment or maintenance of the Register;...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 22 - Power to authorise other uses of information (27 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: I beg to move amendment No. 118, in clause 22, page 19, line 45, at end insert— '(ca) any disclosure of information which results or would result in interference with an individual's private and family life is proportionate, and is for the purpose of— (i) the protection of public safety or public health, or (ii) the protection of the rights and freedoms of others;'. The...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 15 - Power to make public services conditional on identity checks (25 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: I beg to move amendment No. 144, in clause 15, page 14, line 13, leave out paragraphs (b) and (c). This is a quite important amendment. Clause 15 deals with powers to make services conditional on identity checks. We must be realistic and confirm what public services we are talking about. The Minister will be able to do that. I assume that he means access to the doctoremdash save for emergency...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 13 - Invalidity and surrender of ID cards (25 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: I have a couple of points to make that have cropped up in the debate. Let us suppose that a person is in possession of an ID card that was issued to another person. Had I thought of it, I might have tabled an amendment to draw attention to the fact that there is a difference between innocent possession of card that belongs to another person and criminal intent. It is a small point, but, for...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 13 - Invalidity and surrender of ID cards (25 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: May I finish my other point? It is very small and, if the Minister destroys my first point, I will have virtually nothing left to say. I just want confirmation that innocent possession of a card is okay and that no one will ask for it back. I do not think that such events will happen, but I cannot envisage a court demanding the surrender of an identity card as a condition of bail. The...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 13 - Invalidity and surrender of ID cards (25 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ..., I am not entirely sure that the Secretary of State either can or does require the court to surrender the passport to him or her. It seems from the Bill, however, that if a travel document or an ID card were surrendered as a condition of bail—often an important condition—the Home Secretary could demand its surrender to him.

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 12 - Notification of changes affecting accuracy of Register (25 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...(Mr. Taylor) quite rightly flagged up the issue of the relevance of intent in law and he referred to theft. That got my mind moving to a debate that we nearly had this morning. Under clause 8, the ID card remains the property of the person issuing it, which I take to mean the Secretary of State. Therefore, I imagine every indictment of theft of a card in the Crown Court would name the...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 12 - Notification of changes affecting accuracy of Register (25 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: I beg to move amendment No. 132, in clause 12, page 10, line 32, at end insert '(1A) For the purposes of ensuring that an individual is able to comply with his duty under subsection (1), the Secretary of State must at least once every two years send in a prescribed manner to each individual to whom an ID card has been issued at his prescribed address a copy of the information recorded as at a...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: If the individual pays for absolutely everything, as though in a private, commercial transaction, although we know that costs tend to escalate—double or treble—in a general sense the burden does not fall upon the taxpayer. The hon. Gentleman is right to that extent. Nevertheless, the question of how a particular sum could be better spent is surely worth exploring in Committee....

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: No, I am not directly suggesting that. I remind the hon. Gentleman, whose experience is not inconsiderable, that in Committee it is worth trailing arguments. One of the arguments that I am trailing this afternoon is value for money. Whether the global sum is £5 billion or £1 billion, whatever the amount or wherever it comes from, everything boils down to price and cost and money...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...less time. If the hon. Member for Reading, West believes that the hon. Member for Walsall, North was not doing his parliamentary duty, I sure that he will give him an appropriate rocket. Some outside bodies are very interested in the question of costs and who is going to pay them. It is interesting to note that a number of polls have asked people what their support was for an ID card; many...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...course. Amendment No. 44 is very simple. It would insert the phrase ''free of charge'' after the word ''issued'', so that the beginning of the clause would read, ''For the purposes of this Act an ID card is a card which—(a) is issued free of charge to an individual by the Secretary of State''. The amendment is intended to enable us to begin what should be an important and significant...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 8 - Issue etc. of ID cards (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...greatly welcome, must understand that we are talking about significant issues of cost and security. As to why I am raising the matter when the costs in their entirety will be recovered from the individual, that gives rise to the question of whether I, as an individual, expect to pay £85 for a biometric passport, and whether I would prefer to have the money taken from me and spent in...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 5 - Applications relating to entries in Register (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: That is, indeed, possible. I was going to say that Members of Parliament are all experts on some subjects; many would consider themselves experts on most subjects. However, the truth is that we all know certain subjects better than others. I speak for myself—and, I think, for others in the House—when I say that I am not utterly familiar with biometrics and their security and...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 5 - Applications relating to entries in Register (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: ...insert the words ''all of'' before ''his fingerprints''. I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam for his knowledge of and expertise in biometrics, which I do not share. As he rightly said, this gives us an opportunity today to probe the Government on this and related issues. I refer to the words of my right hon. Friend the shadow Home Secretary, the Member for Haltemprice...

Public Bill Committee: Identity Cards Bill: Clause 4 - Designation of documents for purposes of registration etc. (20 Jan 2005)

Mr Humfrey Malins: .... It quite plainly says that the Secretary of State can by order—that is not parliamentary scrutiny—designate a document. Anyone who applies for such a document has to apply for an ID card at the same time. The restriction in the clause is that the document that the Secretary of State can designate has to be one that ''a person has a power or duty to issue by virtue of...