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Identity Cards Bill

I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker, for chiding the Liberal Democrats a little. We voluntarily hand over a huge amount of information in our ordinary lives—in supermarkets, in chemists, through our mobile phone calls, and through the CCTV cameras that many Members who oppose ID cards are happy to campaign for in their constituencies. An awful lot of people, most of them unelected, know who we are, what we buy, why we buy it and when we buy it. We are targeted with direct mailshots as a result of using our credit and debit cards. It is a fact of life that it is difficult to remain anonymous any more. In addition to the civil liberties objections—[Interruption.] Given the amount of heckling one would question the Opposition’s commitment to civil liberties. In addition to civil liberties objections, hon. Members raised several others, some of which the Government have dealt with. The first of those—it was a serious mistake on the part of the Government to let it run—was that of cost. Some fantasy figures were bandied about, especially from last June’s London School of Economics report. No evidence was provided for the claim that an ID card will eventually cost UK citizens—my constituents—£300. I am pleased that the Home Secretary has put that particular genie back into the lamp. A capped cost of £30 is a commitment made in this House that is worth keeping. We heard that ID cards will not work. The other day I read some material from those opposed to ID cards saying that the biometric technology is not in place and that it will not register people with brown eyes. At the invitation of my hon. Friends at the Home Office, I took the trouble to visit it to see biometric technology in operation. I was surprised at how easy it was to have one’s biometrics registered; the whole process took less than five minutes. It is interesting that the UK, in common with other legislatures in modern, liberal democracies, is now introducing biometric passports—[Interruption.]