Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I add my thanks to those expressed to the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Guthrie of Craigiebank, for enabling us to have this opportunity to debate the Government's consultation paper. I welcome the consultation paper. It is a very useful basis on which to pursue the discussion of the very important matters it raises. I thank and congratulate my noble friend Lord Janvrin on his maiden...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords—
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, is the Minister aware that some of us would be happy to relieve her of the constant and unrelieving pressure for a Civil Service Bill if she on behalf of the Government, and the Leader of the Opposition on behalf of the Official Opposition, were to give firm undertakings that they would observe and honour the core principles and values of the Civil Service?
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I too declare my interest as a member of the Merits Committee. Indeed, for this inquiry—hearing the evidence and preparing the report—I was in the chair because our proper chairman, the noble Lord, Lord Filkin, had very honourably decided not to take part in the committee's deliberations, because of his position as an adviser to the company which has been awarded the contract to...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, it is some time since I was officially concerned with the business of interception. Then, from time to time we reviewed whether we should seek the ability to use intercept material as evidence in criminal trials. I can well understand the potential attractions of being able to use such evidence in those trials. I recognise that, in proposing that this should be allowed, my noble and...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Lester, I speak from now rather remote past experience as a Permanent Secretary in the old Home Office. As a general comment, I simply remark that my experience was that machinery of government changes rarely make it easier to handle or resolve difficult and controversial issues of policy and certainly distract—in the short term at least—those involved...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, we have now had two attempts to reach agreement on the composition of a hybrid House of Lords—partly elected and partly appointed. It seems to me that, as a result of the proceedings in another place last week, many of the speeches here yesterday and two very notable speeches today—from the noble Baroness, Lady Symons, and the noble Lord, Lord Higgins—the search for a hybrid...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I need to add little to what my noble friend Lord Moser saidin commending the amendment and the two consequential amendments for your Lordships' approval. I have not been able to discover why the Education Act 1996 restricted to groups of not more than four those who could receive instrumental tuition subject to charges and why vocal tuition was completely excluded. The amendment...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, the experiences of the Passport Office and Prison Service have shown both the advantages and disadvantages of turning departments into agencies. I am glad that the Minister has drawn attention to the successes of the IND in recent years, which have tended to be overlooked because of recent developments and troubles. I invite her to be cautious in moving the IND to agency status, and...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, is the Minister aware that, following the example of the noble Lord, Lord Lester of Herne Hill, four years as an official in the Home Office—two of them as Permanent Secretary—lead me to admire the content of her first Answer as much as I admire the brevity of it?
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I invite your Lordships to agree to this Motion. If the reputation of the House were at risk because of the repeated occasions when this measure had gone backwards and forwards along the Corridor, I think that we have redeemed our reputation by arriving at a sensible compromise between the Government, who wanted compulsion, and the degree of voluntariness which has been restored...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: rose to move, as an amendment to the Motion, at end insert "but do propose Amendments Nos. 22M, 22N and 22O in lieu— 22M Clause 8, Page 7, line 31, at end insert "but this subsection does not require an ID card to be issued as part of or together with a designated document issued on an application made in a case falling within subsection (7)(a) to (c)." 22N Page 7, line 42, leave out from...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I was brought up on the principle, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again". The noble Baroness made clear yesterday her objections to the amendments which I proposed then and which the House approved. She said that my amendments drove a coach and horses through the Government's proposals. I hope that, with my new amendment, I have taken the coach and horses off her...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I say to my noble neighbour, or rather my noble friend Lord Barnett—I think that I may allow myself to call him my noble friend—that I have not been used by the opposition parties in this matter. The Motion which I put down today was not put down at their behest or at their request; it was put down because it seemed to me that here was a different form of compromise from any of...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: rose to move, as an amendment to Motion A, at end insert "but do propose Amendments Nos. 22J and 22K in lieu". 22J Clause 5, page 4, line 44, leave out from "individual" to end of line 4 on page 5 and insert— "(a) if the individual is not already entered in the Register, his application for a designated document must include or be accompanied by an application by that individual to be...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I should declare a personal interest. My existing passport expires in 2008. If the Identity Cards Bill enters the statute book with the amendments that I have proposed, and if passports have been designated for the purposes of the Act by the time I apply for a new passport, I shall have the option to state that I do not wish to apply for my name to be entered in the register. I...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I am very much torn. I do not think that the issue should involve the Parliament Act—it does not seem to be that kind of thing. At the same time, there is an issue of personal freedom to which we and the other place should have some regard. I do not know how much it will cost. We are told that not making registration compulsory for those who apply for a designated document would...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, perhaps I may intervene briefly before the winding-up speeches. I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, for allowing me to do so. I should have been sad not to be here to represent those Members of your Lordships' House who have had long careers in the public service of government. I add my congratulations to those that have already been expressed to the noble Lord, Lord...
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, perhaps I may intervene briefly to say that I said to the noble Lord, Lord Lester, that I was unlikely to be able to be here today, but, as you see, I am. If the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, allows me, I will intervene in the gap.
Lord Armstrong of Ilminster: My Lords, I echo the gratitude expressed by the previous speakers to the noble Lord, Lord Rodgers, for initiating this debate. I, unlike him, am anything but learned in the law and we venture with rashness when we enter into a debate on the role of the law officers where it is predominantly lawyers who will be speaking. But I venture none the less because during my career in Whitehall I...
