Results 1-11 of 11 for id cards speaker:Christopher Huhne

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: I welcome the Opposition's motion on identity cards and have only one key point to make: the ID card scheme is not just about the cards, but about the national identity register. That is why we tabled an amendment, which is on the Order Paper but was not, unfortunately, selected, calling explicitly for the abandonment not just of ID cards but of the centralised biometric register. I shall...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: I agree. The Government have rightly climbed down on applying for cards, and airside workers will no longer be forced to have them. Indeed, no British national with a vote in the forthcoming general election will need to have an ID card, and that perhaps tells us just how popular the Government really think this laminated poll tax is going to be. But that is only part of the argument. If...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: The hon. Gentleman anticipates my next comment. The database would provide a check against the issue of duplicate passports or ID cards with the same biometric data. However, the Government have not provided any evidence that there would be a substantial problem. Nothing in what the Home Office has proposed indicates that it would be worth paying £5 billion for that benefit—let...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: ...UK Border Agency. That logical step is entirely different, because it enables other agencies to begin to abuse the situation. I am sorry that the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis) is no longer here. He said that 25 million items of data were lost, but the number was 28 million—in the one year of 2007. There were a further 17 million items of lost data in...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: I am grateful to the Chairman of the Home Affairs Committee for that observation, which reinforces the point I am trying to make—that ID cards are a sideshow set against the lamentable failure to investigate and prosecute firms that hire illegal workers. Liberal Democrats believe that the register would be a terrible mistake. People need not just take our word for it. A recent report...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: ...Government forecast on record; if he is happy with its authority, all I can say is heaven help us. I fear that the Government may try to deprive us of access to public services unless we sign up to ID cards. The cards may not be mandatory in legislation, but they may increasingly be required to access possibly every type of public service, including health care, education, leisure...

Opposition Day — [15th Allotted Day]: Identity Cards (6 Jul 2009)

Christopher Huhne: ...up now, and you have quite rightly told Front Benchers to keep it short, Mr. Deputy Speaker, so I shall no longer give way. The Liberal Democrats have consistently opposed the introduction of ID cards for everyone, regardless of nationality. We would scrap the entire national identity scheme immediately and spend the money on putting more police on the street. The people of this country...

Commission for the Compact: New Clause 1 — Destruction of samples etc: England and Wales (19 May 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: ..., and serves to highlight the Government's dangerous and illegal obsession with massive, Big Brother-style databases, whether for DNA, e-mails and phone calls, or biometric data collected for ID cards. A report by the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust concluded that out of 46 databases examined, one quarter were almost certainly illegal, as the existing DNA database has been found to be, and...

Olympics: Policing and Crime Bill (19 Jan 2009) has video

Christopher Huhne: I am grateful to the former Home Secretary for his intervention. We have set out clearly the savings that would result from scrapping the ID card scheme, and at the last election they were audited by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, among others. I merely point out that when I was involved in another role—as shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury—I asked every Department how many...

Written Answers — Home Department: Identity Cards: Government Departments (19 Jan 2009)

Christopher Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what recent discussions she has had with ministerial colleagues on the likely levels of take-up of identity (ID) card verification across Government; what estimate she has made of the number of agencies which expect to use ID card verification when the scheme is rolled out; and how many separate locations in each agency are likely to...

Opposition Day — [19th Allotted Day]: Immigration Controls (21 Oct 2008) has video

Christopher Huhne: ...to the language in the motion and the fact that the Chairman of the House of Lords Committee on Economic Affairs should be cited as a sage on the matter. His Committee regrettably ignored the evidence of two extremely distinguished macro-economists, Professor Steve Nickell and Professor David Blanchflower, which was nevertheless cited in the report. Professor Nickell said that immigration...