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Identity Cards Bill

As always, I am grateful to my fellow Nottinghamshire Member of Parliament for his observations. If he will allow me to develop my argument, I am sure that he will receive full satisfaction—[Interruption.] Yes, for less than £30, I expect. I would be interested in the Minister’s view on how fraud will be offset in the charge for issuing cards. ““The Identity Project”” goes on at length about the cost projections for the card—what it will cost individuals, and what it will cost the nation. It talks of the costs of issuing cards over a 10-year period, based on passport service figures; of card readers for the public sector, as envisaged in the Bill; of the national identity register; of the total cost of the national identity register infrastructure; of managing the national identity system; and of specific other staff costs over a 10-year period. The lowest estimate in the report is more than £10 billion. I shall not exacerbate the situation by mentioning the higher costs, because they are difficult to quantify, but £10 billion is already a massive sum. How can the Minister expect the nation, and the individual, to foot the cost for the register and the card?