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Identity Cards Bill

My Lords, I am delighted to respond to the noble Lord because obviously he did not quite catch my first words. I said that something of this complexity is far beyond anything that has gone before. I recognise the work that he has done in the Meteorological Office to enable the transfer down to Exeter, I believe it was, and the success that it has had. I am a frequent user of the website. The Minister has been careful in what she has chosen to refer to, including one year of the Passport Agency. I have commended the Passport Agency on the work it has carried out in combating the most appalling difficulties it faced, as a result of government action, in catching up with some of the work it had to do. We will look in detail at these problems in Committee. We have made it clear that we accept that all governments face difficulties with complex systems. The Government’s choice here is perhaps the most complex system that man or woman could devise, and yet they provide us with a blank cheque of 60 statutory instruments. When the Government were cross-examined, they failed to produce a draft of a single statutory instrument in the process of the Bill passing through another place twice. Nor did they honour an offer they made in Committee in another place when they said they would bring forward a draft of the code of guidance on penalties. So I take no lessons from the Government, but I certainly hope to join them in school in Committee to see whether we can improve the Bill. I have taken about two more minutes than I should have done; I apologise to the House for my enthusiastic riposte to the noble Lord. The fourth test is to consider the cost-effectiveness of the scheme. I shall leave that to other noble Lords who have gone through the LSE report and the Government’s responses.