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Identity Cards Bill

I make a brief intervention to surprise the noble Lord opposite. Some research was done under the auspices of the Home Office, not in 2003 but this year. A representative sample of 1,000 adults was polled about how much they would be prepared to pay for these cards. Some 63 per cent said that they would be prepared to pay £250 for a combined passport and identity card, or £100 for a stand-alone card. Those who did the polling were extremely surprised by that level of support. That up-to-date research gives us some indication of the strength of feeling that lies behind this proposal.