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Identity Cards Bill

First, obviously it is a ““national”” and not a ““British”” identity card. Many people who are not British nationals will be carrying these cards, but that is not its purpose. With regard to the amendment and the extension to Scotland, public service access and so on, I suspect that for the card to be useful for some of the purposes stated—I do not believe that it will be useful for many of them—it will have to cover Scotland as well. I should be interested to know whether a loophole will be formed by not including Scotland in the provision of public services compulsorily or whether the market will be distorted because people will suddenly find that it is easier and more convenient to go over the Border for the services because they do not have to produce the card and so on. I am not certain on that point. Just to get the noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, really worried, the CEN work group on TC 224 will soon finalise the specification for a European-wide citizen card. It will be the specification for the things issued by local authorities and will be interoperable throughout Europe.