Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Baroness Hanham (Conservative). It was answered on Thursday, 25 March 2010.

Identity Cards

Question: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Is he aware that, in a recent interview, the Home Office Minister in the other place said that some local authorities and transport groups were interested in replacing bus passes with identity cards? To date, the Government have persuaded just 10,000 members of the public to have identity cards. Since the Government are obviously struggling with this policy, would the Minister say whether either the Home Office or the Department for Transport would be tempted to follow this suggestion of using ID cards for bus passes so that they could compulsorily increase the numbers for the over-60s?

Answer: The word "compulsory" is not in our lexicon when it comes to discussing identity cards. They are entirely voluntary. We are looking at and are in dialogue about a number of public and private sector partners who could increase the services offered. Those, of course, are services focusing on the requirement of citizens to prove identity. There are no plans at present to involve the bus pass in that. I think that the noble Baroness is being a little bit selective with the statistics. Over 8,000 ID cards have been issued, over 10,000 people have enrolled, over 70,000 people have requested application packs; and this is on a rollout which is restricted to certain parts of the country. We intend that rollout to continue. The major endeavour will be in 2012 when we will have biometric passports, and people have a choice of a biometric passport, an ID card, or both—or neither.

Secondary information