It would be quite wrong of me, and out of order, to return to our debates about the scope of pilot schemes and whether they should be introduced as a general provision, but we must address a strange anomaly regarding commencement. Ministers must explain why clauses 13 and 14 are to be commenced by an order subsequent to the Act, whereas clause 15, which is the operative clause in relation to the pilot scheme, is not to be commenced by order but is included in clause 69(1) among the provisions that will come into force on the day on which the Act is passed. Clause 15 cannot operate without clauses 13 and 14, which deal with the mechanics of the registration process and providing personal identifiers, and it is hard to see how a clause that essentially depends on earlier clauses can be used when they have not come into effect because they are omitted from the list.

That method of commencement suggests that the Government will continue to delay doing anything about this important subject. Given that the clause contains a limited number of identifiers—not the wide group that we debated in Committee and on Second Reading, but simply the basic signature and date-of-birth identifiers—there is no obvious reason why changes to the 1983 Act should not have immediate effect, so that the identifiers can be included from day one. That would provide clarity and the wherewithal for pilots to take place irrespective of their scope and whether they will turn out to be the preferred solution, as many of us hope.

The Minister must persuade us why we should have a delay of any kind in the commencement of clauses 13 or 14 but not clause 15, which requires subsequent orders to specify the scope of the pilots, and which could not possibly be implemented without clauses 13 and 14. That is the purport of the amendment. I hope that I have kept within the strict constraints of the commencement of the Bill, Mr. O’Hara. I look forward to the Minister’s reply.