Identity Documents Bill

Part of the debate – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:43 am on 29 June 2010.

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Photo of Meg Hillier Meg Hillier Shadow Minister (Home Office) 10:43, 29 June 2010

On the point of people voluntarily going on the national identity register and then being on it for life, those of us with passports—eight out of 10 British citizens in this country—are on the passport database for life. I am puzzled as to what the principle objection is. Ms Chakrabarti has talked about specificity—I hate that word—and the focused need for data. The passport database, however, is used in much the same way as the proposed national identity register. The aim of the register was effectively to modernise and automate certain transactions that were open to human error. That remains the case with the passport database, which is not on a statutory footing.