Orders of the Day — Identity Cards Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 5:47 pm on 20 December 2004.

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Photo of Robert Marshall-Andrews Robert Marshall-Andrews Labour, Medway 5:47, 20 December 2004

Perhaps I might make to the right hon. Gentleman the point that I would have made to the Home Secretary, had I been given the opportunity. Will the excellence of biometric testing not create precisely the trap—I know that many police officers feel this way—that we are seeking to avoid? All existing identification methods are imperfect; indeed, most ID card systems in most countries are acknowledged to be imperfect and are created to be so. If a card is forged, biometric technology will provide what appears to be incontrovertible proof of identity, thus giving criminals and terrorists the access that they would otherwise not have.