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Identity Cards Bill

As always, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I accept your advice, but the question of opportunity cost bears on what people will have to pay. In the absence of an answer from the Government to any of the substantive questions that have been raised, they cannot give us a realistic estimate of costs. The LSE estimates that have been quoted—the £10 billion to £19.2 billion, which would result in a cost for the individual of £170 to £230—are the best and most reasonable estimate available. If those are the real costs—the best that can reasonably be estimated from the Government’s lack of preparedness and in the absence of information from them—it is legitimate to ask how those substantial charges will be extracted from members of the public. At the time of the poll tax, one of the jokes was that people would next be taxed for breathing. The way that the Government formulate identity cards makes them virtually a tax on existence. In the absence of any assurance, quantification or solidity underpinning the Government’s position, it is entirely legitimate to ask how the charges will be extracted from the population. When the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael) asks about poinding and warrant sales, those are legitimate questions. It will require more than a little additional advice from the Treasury Bench to answer them—perhaps not in relation to the result of the votes tonight, but certainly when there is a general debate and the effects of such a disastrous Bill are felt among the general public.