[Sir John Butterfill in the Chair] — A Surveillance Society?

Part of the debate – in Westminster Hall at 4:25 pm on 19 March 2009.

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Photo of Tom Brake Tom Brake Shadow Minister (Olympics and London), Shadow Minister (Home Affairs), Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Home Affairs), Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (Olympics and London) 4:25, 19 March 2009

I wanted to raise earlier an issue regarding the national identity register. The Select Committee report wanted confirmation that

"the National Identity Register will not be used as a matter of routine to monitor the activities of individuals."

The Government's response stated that

"it would be a significant undertaking to use it 'to monitor the activities of individuals' and certainly not something that would be practicable to use as a matter of course or in real-time."

I hoped that the Government would state definitively that they will not use the register to monitor the activities of individuals. The response had more caveats than that.